Why we need a tech-savvy president

Whether or not you believe that there is an inexorable and exponential growth in business, communications, social, cultural and political processes being mapped to the Internet — and a simultaneous disruption along with innovation occurring worldwide — one thing is clear: we’re living in an unprecedented time of accelerating change and the global network called the internet is at the heart of it.

This accelerating change is why we must have someone in the oval office that has an intuitive understanding of how the internet is shifting much of what we do, exploding knowledge and providing the building blocks of innovation, bringing a level of transparency to governmental and corporate actions never before seen, while flattening the world faster than you can say “Thomas Friedman“.

John McCain seems to be rising in the polls for the GOP nomination and yet I’m troubled by several instances where he’s made it clear he’s a neo-Luddite or just plain clueless.  This Fortune archived article entitled, “How I Work” from March of 2006 is one of those:

“I read my e-mails, but I don’t write any. I’m a Neanderthal–I don’t even type. I do have rudimentary capabilities to call up some websites, like the New York Times online, that sort of stuff. No laptop. No PalmPilot. I prefer my schedule on notecards, which I keep in my jacket pocket. But my wife has enormous capability. Whenever I want something I ask her to do it. She’s just a wizard. She even does my boarding passes–people can do that now. When we go to the movies, she gets the tickets ahead of time. It’s incredible.”

Wow! You mean she can go to an airline web site, check in and print a boarding pass? Buy movie tickets online? I’ll bet she can even use that there Google thingy. Wizard indeed.

This would be funny if there weren’t a possibility that Senator McCain might be sitting in the most powerful seat in the world (though how much worse he could be than our C-student Current Occupant is open to debate).

Am I advocating for a geek in the White House? Nope. I’m just weary of the last seven years as science has seemingly taken a back seat to magic the ether biblical faith and it’s imperative someone technologically savvy end up in that oval office seat. Being savvy includes biotech, nanotech, all things energy, exhibiting intellectual curiosity, willing to take leadership positions that are strategically sound, someone open to the world willing to take calculated risks, and so forth.

Have I made up my mind yet? No. I like many of Ron Paul‘s positions — especially his hammering on the points of liberty and privacy while upholding the Constitution and Bill of Rights — but he seems like a loose cannon with paltry command of the facts. Just listen to his interviews and you’ll see how easily he’s tripped up on some basic numbers.

No one on the Democratic side excites me. Same with the Republican side. I am so firmly entrenched in the “Undecided” category that I’ll have to do what I did in the last two elections: read a half dozen blogs on either side daily; all the candidates positions; and think.