Which Candidate Is More Tech-Friendly?

Senator John Kerry, Democratic challenger to U.S. President George Bush, would seek more government involvement on issues such as broadband adoption, cybersecurity, and spam, while Bush, if reelected, would continue to take a more market-driven approach to those issues, a panel of Washington, D.C., technology experts predicted Tuesday.
Although partisan, both sides agreed that the two candidates would take sometimes radically different approaches to technology-related issues. Kerry would use tax incentives and other government programs to encourage the rollout of broadband and faster broadband, while Bush's position has largely been to reduce regulation on broadband providers and let the market respond to the need, said Thomas Lenard, senior fellow and vice president for research at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a free market-focused think tank.