President Obama’s statement pushing for net neutrality →
This is a nice gesture. I hope something comes of it.
But talk is cheap, especially from politicians, and especially from Obama.
The FCC is an independent entity that Obama doesn’t directly control, but he did appoint a former cable-company lobbyist as FCC chairman, continuing the revolving-door problem that he said he wouldn’t do.1
In our country’s oversimplified celebrity/sports-team view of politics, most citizens think Presidents have much more power than they really do. Maybe Obama really wanted not to fill the regulatory agencies with lobbyists with completely conflicting interests, and he simply couldn’t get it done. Either way, it didn’t happen, along with a pretty long list of other things we were supposed to Hope™ for.
Why should we believe that he’ll actually have any effect on net neutrality?
And isn’t it sad that a U.S. president can have such a strong opinion on a regulatory decision that’s such obvious common sense, so obviously beneficial to consumers (and the lack of which is so obviously harmful), so well-supported by the citizens, and falling on the shoulders of someone he appointed, yet it still has such a low chance of actually getting done?