Mitt Romney talks tech
Techcrunch had the chance to interview Governor Mitt Romney, US presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. The good news is that his views on taxation of venture capital and the Internet seem reasonable. The bad news? He's a PC user (though a few of his sons run the blessed Mac).
Of particular note to the tech industry is his view on H1B visas, which allow qualified candidates to come to the US to work:
I like H1B visas. I like the idea of the best and brightest in the world coming here. I'd rather have them come here permanently rather than come and go, but I believe our visa program is designed to help us solve gaps in our employment pool.
Where there are individuals who have skills that we do not have in abundance here, I'd like to bring them here and contribute to our economy. Ultimately we're in a competitive battle with the rest of the world; a battle where we need to stay the most powerful nation in the world. And the only way our nation stays ahead forever is with superior technology and innovation.
Unfortunately, I'm guessing that most of the candidates will sound roughly the same on the issues. Let's hope that whoever makes it to the White House will actually stand behind their campaign positions.
Disclosure: Though I did once contribute to Romney's campaign I don't actually have a settled opinion on my vote. I'm happy to post anything relevant from any of the candidates.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
Our tech and OSS friendly colleagues in Europe also have free universal health-care, which allows for lower barriers to entrepreneurs who don't feel tied to an employer for basic safety. In the US, most people work for fear of risk, not play to win. Copyright lobbies and incumbent business interest, for example, create incentive for public corruption and general complacency in the idea economy. Along those lines, I'm certainly sympathetic to Professor Lessig's endorsement of Obama (on the whole corruption issue, I think Lessig is right-on in critique of the mainstream politicians, including Romney). Obama also supports the creation of a national CTO office (I would suggest Phil Windley, considering his work with identity and previous public tech leadership, for such a post, even though he is a Republican!)...
Let's create pro-small business environments if we want tech-friendly economies (e.g. a compromise for those who don't have the heart to support single-payer health-care: no income or payroll taxes for businesses under 25 people **if and only if** they provide top-notch health insurance to their employees).
- by Carlos_Hawes January 28, 2008 10:49 AM PST
- Too bad that there isn't a "Tech Debate" during the campaign. It seems like there has been a debate for almost every other constituency. There was a labor debate, an Hispanic debate, a gay debate, an African American debate. When do the geeks ever get their turn?
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(3 Comments)I don't really expect the candidates to know the nuances of technology, but it would be nice to put them in a forum where they have to at least become familiar with issues like privacy, net neutrality, tech visas, antitrust regulation, open format standards, biotechnology and other issues that mean the world to us geeks. These issues all have enormous implications to America's place and leadership role in the world over the next decade and they are not being addressed by any of the major campaigns as far as I can see.
One exception: John McCain has said that he would want Steve Ballmer to serve in his cabinet (apparently not a joke). Be afraid. Be very afraid :)