Daniel Lovell has won more than two dozen awards for his columns, editorials and investigative journalism. He is actively addicted to the Internet, soda and New York Yankees baseball.
I usually try to refrain from talking about politics in this space, but this past week has got me thinking a bit more about the presidential race, and whether the Democrats' annointed candidate is all he claims to be.
Issue One: Don't tick off the media.
Barack Obama and his supporters made a great deal of noise about how the candidate would eschew the normal media exposure and announce his vice-presidential running mate via text message to his supporters first...a bit of reward for those throngs who have dedicated sweat and breathless conversation to the campaign.
While Obama held to his promise, his text message announcement went out in the dead of night, while supporters were sleeping, and hours after the mainstream media broke the story that Joe Biden would run beside him. What that means is that most supporters found the story in the morning paper before they noticed the Obama text message.
Obama's declaration to supporters that he'd hear it from him first, then, ring awfully hollow. One might be quick to point out that he kept his word, but, truth be told, the media putting themselves under increased pressure to scoop the Obama campaign, simply because Obama decided to cut them out of the loop. Bad move for a guy who has been a media darling since day one.
Message to Barack: Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Issue two: Joe Biden.
I wish I could like Joe Biden. His first wife, who died tragically 30 years ago, was a native of my hometown of Auburn, and he's an SU grad, so he's got a couple of local ties that could bode well for the region. But there's a few things that disturb me too much to support him.
First is his support of the Recording Industry Associated of America and the Motion Picture Association of America. His support runs so deep, in fact, that he signed a letter urging the Justice Department to prosecute private citizens who used peer-to-peer file-sharing services. He also sponsored an RIAA-backed bill that would have essentially made it illegal for users to record and play back music played on satellite or Internet radio stations.
I've written several times about the RIAA and MPAA, and their deceitful, dishonest and even illegal practices in trying to thwart illegal file sharing -- a practice, I might add, popular because of the ridiculously high prices these industries charge for music and movies, only to offer very little reward to the artists responsible for the content itself.
An Obama running bed who shares bedclothes with big business? Humph.
Next is Biden's support of Internet filtering at libraries, which effectively limits a user's ability to enjoy the full potential of the online world. These are people who likely can't afford home computers and Internet service themselves, and limiting their experience will only keep them that much farther from fully embracing technology.
And did I mention his support of Internet taxes? Consider paying additional government taxes for using the Internet itself -- after you already pay government fees for the connection.
On so-called "net nuetrality" legislation, Biden has been, to say the least, unhelpful. He claims there need be no legislation to thwart attempts to create a tiered Internet service, which would clearly favor big business interests and destroy the open dialogue of the Internet.
Interestingly, Obama himself claims to support net nuetrality. And he's spoken about the need to embrace the next-generation technologies of file sharing and create ways in which content generators will be fairly compensated for their work. He has not, as far as I know, cuddled up to the slimy RIAA, and he has a campaign team that seems Internet savvy and even Internet-focused.
So why choose Biden?
My only guess is that Biden gives Obama the foreign-relations experience Obama sorely lacks. But on the issues of technology that should be important to young people, Biden fails. Miserably. He even scored a pathetic 37.5 on CNET's Technology Voter's Guide.
I can say in complete honesty that Obama's choice of running mate makes me strongly suspicious of his decision-making ability. And though the "technology geek" voting subset may be a small one, I think Obama's choice of running mate will ensure that those of us heading to the polls will likely choose to pull a lever that doesn't have his name on it.
