Obama punts on network neutrality

[Commentary] President Obama's decision to advocate the reclassification of Internet broadband services as a utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act -- that is, making broadband subject to all the laws that regulate telephone service -- seems particularly Obama-like: squirrelly and lofty at the same time.

It's squirrelly because it will never happen. Even the FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler seemed to acknowledge the president's unhelpfulness by coolly noting the difficult legal thresholds further regulation and a change in status might face. Calling for a policy that everyone involved in the issue knows will never be enacted is a lot like having no policy. It is, in effect, washing your hands of the matter. Still, you are positioning yourself on the beautiful high road, and leaving everybody else down on the dirty low one.