Candidates "Debate" Network Neutrality

To kick off the 2008 Personal Democracy Forum, which begins today in New York City, over the weekend surrogates for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "debated" technology issues on Twitter, a tool that makes text messages (140 character limit) publicly readable on the Web.

Anna Marie Cox dubbed her last question, network neutrality, as being "the elephant in the tweets." Liz Mair (McCain) pointed to a position statement and added that the "FCC should focus on policing anti-comp behavior & consumer predators," a tacit acknowledgement of Cox's characterization of McCain's position as "[waiting] for the abuses to happen, then do something about them." Mike Nelson (Obama), pointed to Obama's online policy, which he characterized as being a "clear goal of NN and an open Internet."

Mair opined that Obama statements "[reflect] comfort w/ gov't intervention" wheresas McCain "favors market-based approach except where gov’t intervention [is absolutely necessary]." Nelson said that Obama supports "smart, effective gov." and then engaged in traditional poli-speak, by asking a rhetorical put-down: "does McCain oppose antitrust, safety [regulation]?"

You can read the "exchange" at TweetBoards.