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Obama Courts The Science & Tech Vote Online

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

In an unusual move, Barack Obama's campaign on Sunday evening released a new web ad focused on the candidate's science and technology policies.

The web ad takes footage from Obama's appearance on Google's campus last November to make its point. (Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has endorsed Obama.)

The ad highlights the candidate's call for the enactment of a laundry list of Silicon Valley's top lobbying priorities. Most of the items, apart from vigorous anti-trust enforcement, are perennial lobbying items for Silicon Valley companies on Capitol Hill.

The most interesting aspect of this video is that it makes no mention at all of Obama's support for net neutrality, perhaps the hottest and most controversial issue of all in tech policy. It doesn't mention anything about a chief technology officer either.

Still, it's noteworthy that science and tech policy, billed as a "Blueprint For Change" by the Obama campaign in this video, is acknowledged as being a transformative force and an important aspect of any administration. Some of the ideas, especially the specific proposals for more government transparency, hold a bipartsian appeal.

If the election results on Tuesday actually turn out as the polls are predicting, tech policy will gain the kind of recognition that it deserves, and we may actually get a rebooting of America.

See also:

• Obama Passes His Google Interview
• Of GOP Candidates, Geeks Hate McCain the Least
• Nobel Winners Call For Science Debate, Candidates Spar Over Jesus-Lucifer Link
• Obama Woos Silicon Valley
• Obama Would Make Comcast's Interference with BitTorrent Illegal, Aide Says
• Obama vs. McCain: The Wired.com Scorecard

Full post as published by Threat Level on November 02, 2008 (boomark / email).