A recent Business Week article discussed the potential for a techie president. Many in the industry are sure to agree with the following sentiment expressed by Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google: “We want to make sure the next President is a ‘tech President.'” We at GCG heartily concur decisions affecting high tech such as science and engineering education incentives, the expansion of Internet access to rural and inner-city areas, and worker visas are made at the highest levels. A healthy tech industry contributes to the economic health of the United States….

And yet, there are limits do we really want a guy in the Oval Office who will take a personal interest in how his personal computer is configured, or in how well (or poorly) the White House network is performing on a particular day? Of course, for a techie, this much power could be a very heady thing. You’d be on all the beta lists and get top-level attention to your feedback perhaps even to the degree that they won’t dare slip a feature that you highly rate. It still seems like the prospect of a “real” tech president is quite a ways off. By “real” we’re talking someone who has installed their own o/s or at least made a few hardware upgrades on their own the current crop of candidate doesn’t impress us as the type of folks who’ve logged much keyboard time.