Why I Support Barack Obama

In my talks this year, I have been outlining some of the world's great problems,

highlighting some of the things that are being done by technology innovators to solve them,

and urging my listeners to "work on stuff that matters."

We are in unprecedented times. And folks, I'm sorry to say that the current financial

meltdown is not the worst of it. Political instability around the world, wars over access to

resources, and yes, terrorists, are all in our future. Scientists who've studied global

warming agree that we're heading towards decades of extreme environmental stress, leading to

even more severe economic disruptions than we have seen to date. Meanwhile, we have an aging

population with ballooning healthcare costs, an unfair economy in which some people receive

outsized gains while others fall behind, an educational system that is not preparing

children for the future, and deficits that require an increasing percentage of our tax

dollars to service debt to other countries. Even if there is a short term recovery, huge

problems loom in the years ahead, problems we can no longer pass off to our children and

grandchildren.

Faced with these problems, we need a president who can harness the best and brightest our

country has to offer, a president who is conversant with, and comfortable with, the power of

technology to assist in solving these problems, a president who is good at listening,

studying, and devising solutions based on the best insight available, rather than on narrow

ideology. We need a president who can forge consensus, not just among the partisans in our

own fractured democracy but around the world. We need a president who can inspire our

citizens and our global partners to forgo narrow self interest and embrace the possibilities

that we can achieve if we work together to build a better future.

I believe Barack Obama is that president. He is a man of intelligence, but also a man whose

character and temperament seem suited to the problems of our age: unflappable, optimistic

even in the face of adversity, willing to speak the truth about subjects that have long been

taboo (I'm thinking of his speech on race, and his speech on fatherhood) and with unscripted

reactions that show his fundamental decency (I'm thinking of his reaction to those who

wanted to make a campaign issue of Sarah Palin's daughter's unplanned pregnancy.)

Because this is a tech blog, not a political blog, though, I primarily want to address the

subject of why members of the technical community should join me in supporting Barack Obama.

(The New York Times has made a compelling case based on the broader issues, as has Colin

Powell.) I outline four principal reasons:

1. Connected, Transparent Government
2. The Financial Crisis
3. Climate Change
4. Net Neutrality

I will also discuss some important additional considerations, personal and political, that I

hope readers who don't want to see politics in these pages, will forgive.