Miguel Helft on politics and Silicon Valley

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Column for Politech
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 17:51:23 -0700
From: Helft, Miguel <MHelft () mercurynews com>
To: 'declan () well com' <declan () well com>

Declan, here's my latest column. We now require free registration, so I
included the whole column in text below, as well as the link.


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/miguel_helft/8701
574.htm

Bush and Kerry fracture Valley's usual united front
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BUSINESS ISSUES TAKE BACK SEAT TO VEHEMENT POLITICAL DISAGREEMENT
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By Miguel Helft
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Politics in Silicon Valley's business community tends to be a fairly genteel
affair.
The groups that lobby in Washington on behalf of tech leaders are largely
non-partisan. They promote issues that are typically narrow and parochial:
don't kill our stock options; keep the Internet tax free; help spread
broadband access; don't mess with our plans to send jobs overseas.
To be sure, there always have been staunch Democrats and faithful
Republicans. But philosophically, most business leaders here find plenty of
common ground. Regardless of party affiliation, they generally favor
corporate tax breaks and believe in a woman's right to choose. Most don't
think Western civilization will crumble if gays are allowed to marry. The
issues that divide America so bitterly don't divide them.
But war and job losses across the nation have shattered that unity.
At a recent debate among Valley executives and venture capitalists billed as
``Who is better for the Silicon Valley -- Kerry or Bush,'' the focus was not
on the Valley.
Stock options barely were mentioned. Broadband access came up, but failed to
spark any debate. Offshore outsourcing was broached only briefly. And I
don't think the words ``Internet'' and ``tax'' were ever mentioned in the
same sentence.
The debate was about Iraq, the economy, the deficit, jobs and Iraq. And the
alternating speakers could have hailed from the heart of Red and Blue
America.
The Valley clearly gets that the November election is about far more than
marginal tax rates and the accounting treatment of stock options. On the big
issues -- war, America's role in the world, basic domestic priorities --
business leaders here are staring at each other across a deep, wide and
partisan divide.
The debate was headlined by Reed Hundt, who chaired the Federal
Communications Commission under President Clinton, and Floyd Kvamme, the
veteran venture capitalist who is an adviser to President Bush on science
and technology. They could not have been farther apart -- on everything.
Bush's tax cuts were either a deft way to soft-land an economy in danger of
crashing or an irresponsible giveaway to the rich that will lead to high
interest rates and burden Americans for generations to come. Bush is either
a courageous leader who reacted decisively to 9/11, or one who led us into
an unnecessary quagmire in Iraq that has eroded America's moral leadership.
The economy is either robust and creating lots of new jobs or Bush has the
worst job-creation record of any president since Herbert Hoover.
Others were even more partisan. ``There were a couple of primal scream
moments,'' noted Republican Jim Cunneen, CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley
Chamber of Commerce, referring to Howard Dean's famous act of political
suicide in Iowa.
There was Tony Perkins, the former CEO of the Red Herring, saying that
history would judge the democratization of Iraq as one of America's greatest
achievements and that Kerry wants to raise taxes on every single American.
And Kim Polese, the former CEO of Marimba, who read a top 10 list of the
dumbest things Bush did after 9/11 (squandered the goodwill that flowed
toward America, let Osama bin Laden slip through our hands, to name a
couple).
There was Gil Amelio, the former CEO of Apple, saying Bush represents the
best of America's frontiersmen -- courage and independence. And Jesse Odell,
a public relations executive, who called Bush ``secretive,''
``closed-minded'' and ``provincial.''
And while there wasn't much debate on Valley-centric issues, there certainly
was a Valley spin on Bush's record.
``George Bush said he would manage the country as if it were a business,''
said venture capitalist Margarita Quihuis, recapping her remarks in an
interview. ``In the Valley we are very comfortable with that. But we also
know how to evaluate it.''
No member of Bush Corp.'s board can be pleased with the results, Quihuis
said. His administration came in with a lot of money in the bank, and, like
a dot-com, gave it away for the equivalent of a Super Bowl ad. It ruined the
brand and doesn't have clear product strategy.
``Maybe it's like Microsoft,'' she added. ``They'll get it right in
(version) 3. I don't know that the world and the U.S. can wait for (version)
3 of the Bush administration.''
MIGUEL HELFT is a Mercury News editorial writer. His column on technology
policy appears on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.


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