Who of the Presidential Election Candidates are pro gamers?

Source: videogamesblogger.com

As videogamers go to the polls for the U.S. Presidential Election on November 4th, it is important that gamers have information on where the Presidential Candidates: John McCain and Barack Obama, and their Vice Presidential running-mates: Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, stand on the issues relating to their favorite or preferred hobby.

It is very clear though that Hillary Clinton was the most anti-gaming of the bunch. She had tired many times (and failed on each) to attempt to regulate the gaming industry and frequently called on investigations into the video game industry and/or companies related to it, such as during the Hot Coffee Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas scandal. This leaves no doubt that a Clinton Presidency would’ve challenged the status quo regarding video games and the federal government.

But since she didn’t win the Democratic Nomination, let’s segue into the first woman who may become Vice President and the talk of the town ever since her “lipstick” comment at the Republican National Convention: Governor and Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin.

As you can see above, there is actually photographic evidence that she has at least touched what one could consider a “videogame” at some time in her life. However, it looks complicated even to me! So what about videogames the rest of us play? Well given the newness of the Governor on the national stage, not much is known about her stance regarding video games. However she was once involved in a book censorship scandal as the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in 1996 that involved the firing (and then re-hiring after public backlash) of a librarian who resisted a book ban.

She has since gone on record saying that her talks of censorship were “rhetorical”, whatever that means. But as it stands, there is not enough information either way to say whether she would be good or bad for the videogame industry. However since Republicans are generally against government involvement that bolds well as that is the stance John McCain has.

As for specifically where the Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain stands on videogame regulation, there is a report from the Summer of 2008 New Hampshire town hall meeting in which McCain is paraphrased as saying that it should fall on the parents to be responsible in choosing which videogames their kids can play (i.e., not the government) and that it should happen on a case-by-case basis. The report then says though that he used the question to segue into a discussion on child pornography, which obviously is a much bigger issue. But his hesitation to regulate the video game industry via the federal government matches up with the traditional Republican belief in “small government”, that is, the government shouldn’t be involved in these affairs. As mentioned above.

It also may be of note to gamers that the McCain campaign actually posted a flash-based game called “Pork Invaders” on their Facebook page. It’s a Space Invaders clone in which you must blast away “pork-barrel-spending” and it’s meant to help introduce young voters to McCain’s desire to cut government spending and veto pork-barrel projects that will reach his desk when he is President.

McCain, and Obama, are both against levying additional taxes on the Internet. McCain is also, however, against federally regulated net neutrality, which his official website states is an “unnecessary government intrusion.” This represents a critical difference between McCain and Obama. McCain’s campaign also says that he will support efforts to crack down on the “global epidemic of piracy. McCain also advocates expanding broadband penetration into communities that currently lack the service, a stance he shares with his opponent Barack Obama.

One thing is for sure though, John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain is much more likely to be a gamer. She is very tech-savvy as you can tell by Meghan McCain’s blog in which she posts pictures and videos as well blogs about her daily life. In fact the heading on her blog says, “Musings and Pop Culture on the Political Trail” so if John McCain is elected, at least he has a modern tech-savvy daughter who may be able to clear some things up for him.

And now turn to John McCain’s opponent and the Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama.

Obama has spoken the most about video games out of the two candidates and their VP’s and has stated publicly that he loves Pong. Unfortunately, any love for video games ends there, with that ancient (but fun) title. Even though it is pretty rare for a politician to show ANY kind of love for a video game.

However Obama has shown that he doesn’t have much respect for the video game medium as he has spoken against it on numerous occasions. The most famous of which being on February of 2007 during a speech in Austin, Texas where he implored young people to “turn off the TV and stop playing Game Boy because we’ve got work to do.” And in 2006, for reasons unknown, Obama returned a $500 campaign contribution from then-President of the ESA Doug Lowenstein.

But as far as an official stance on the federal regulation of video games, Obama spoke to Common Sense Media in late 2007 where he expressed his belief that the video game industry as the opportunity to regulate itself via better informational campaigns and tools for parents. But he said if the industry doesn’t take the opportunity and responsibility to improve the system, then his administration would definitely step-in to do something about it. In the same interview, Barack Obama stated that he would back a federal study to examine the effect of videogames on the cognitive development of children (I assume they mean violent games and not Viva Pinata).

According to the Obama campaign’s official stance, Obama is against levying additional taxes on the Internet. He is also the politician at the forefront of supporting federally mandated net neutrality—such laws would keep the Internet from becoming a tiered service where only certain content (from content providers willing to pay an additional fee) would be delivered at maximum throughput. These two issues could have a significant effect on the future of digital distribution, particularly for smaller, independent distributors. The senator is also strongly in favor of rigorously protecting intellectual property rights and redefining the FCC standard of “broadband” to a higher minimum bandwidth.

Finally we come to Barack Obama’s Vice Presidential running mate, Joe Biden. However there isn’t much to see here, as he does not have a significant history with videogame-related issues. However he is notorious for being anti-consumer on issues of technology. He has been vague on net neutrality in the past, and fought vigorously for the intellectual property concerns of the RIAA and the MPAA.