Mike the Usurper wrote: dmv wrote:
A side-by-side comparison of the language changes on Obama's Technology position. Not good... and do they imagine there is not versioning software out there to highlight this? These are not just linguistic changes. But then again, I guess he's running on Change...
Some of it isn't, some of it is, some of it is response to various attacks, some is clarification and some is condensing. There are some significant changes, but the version checking isn't as extreme as it looks because you have sections moved which are tracked as new, which were simply cut and pasted into new zones. Significant yes, but not as big as described.
I think its huge! There is one section, Employ Technology and Innovation to Solve Our Nation’s Most Pressing Problems, which was cut and pasted and therefore tracks as new. The majority of the edits consist of a massive cutting of specific policy ideas. For example, a very specific 4 point platform on safeguarding privacy rights, an 8 point platform on government transparency, and a 5 point plan for broadband competitiveness, as well as 4 of the 5 points on protecting children online were completely deleted, and in their place we have simple platitudes that mean almost nothing and that any candidate from any party is likely to agree to. Calling this "condensing" is far too generous. We're left with almost no idea what Obama actually promises to do about technology issues, but rather just a list of issues that he cares about without specific policy prescriptions. That means we are likely to see more of the same from his administration that we've been seeing for years on these issues.
Oh, wait, I see that we added one specific promise to protect corporate intellectual property rights abroad, which could only have come from Biden. Thats a major change in policy! I'll bet the addition of that point will cause a stampede of donations from the netroots! One could get the impression that Biden's team had a large influence on this editing overall, as his name is deliberately added in several places. If that is true, it would mean that Biden is having a big impact on Obama's domestic policy, something Obama supporters have been quick to ensure us was not going to be the case. Of course, both texts vastly overstate the power of the Presidency to create policy. Both campaigns are guilty of this. One gets the impression that most Americans have absolutely no idea how the federal government of the United States actually works, and people in politics embrace the confusion rather than combating it, as its not like anyone actually gets held to task on campaign promises... Regardless, the bottom line is that if Biden's influence adds an authoritarian element to Obama's domestic policy positions and whitewashes his technology positions, it will leave his campaign with very little for me to get excited about, and I don't think I'm alone there. RE: Versionista: Page comparison | 
