With the presidential campaign shifting to its final phase, I again started thinking again about politics and IT. I started my first job in IT ten years ago, and was working for an ISP during the 2000 hanging chad drama. Since I live in a predominately Republican area of Michigan, I am used to being a minority side of the political spectrum. But I was still surprised to see how conservative IT people are. Granted most can’t be bothered with politics, but still I find IT department’s tilting to the right of the spectrum.

Now with the 2008 campaign I started watching to see if Barack Obama would make any headway in this world. As far as politicians go he’s the most wired person this side of Al Gore. He walks around with multiple phones on his belt, he hired a Facebook co-founder to co-ordinate his new-media campaign, and has otherwise used the internet like nobody’s business. John McCain on the other hand doesn’t now how to use a computer, is merely “aware” of the internet, and aids have to remind him not to say “The Google.”

So does that mean the IT people I work with would warm up to Barack Obama? Not exactly.

I am finding my current set of colleagues more libertarian in their worldview. If they have a view at all they are more sympathetic to Ron Paul, who is no slouch himself when it comes taking advantage of the internet in a political campaign.