Obama Is From Google, McCain Is From AT&T on Digital Age Rules

Sens Barack Obama (D-IL) and John McCain (R-AZ) approach regulation in the information age from fundamentally different perspectives. Sen Obama, who clinched the Democratic nomination with an Internet-savvy campaign, wants the government to take an active role in wielding the Web as a weapon against poverty and rural isolation, an approach that could benefit Google. Sen McCain sees the Internet mainly as a business and trusts market forces to foster innovation for society's benefit. It's the same tack he has taken in Congress, advocating a hands-off approach to telephone-industry mergers that created the new AT&T. "McCain is a traditional, market-oriented conservative, and Obama is more comfortable with government intervention in the marketplace to promote competition," says Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project. John Kneuer, a former Bush administration official who now advises McCain on technology issues, says the senator wants the government to leave private industry alone so the marketplace can solve problems.