Dem Convention 2008 Archive

Speaking: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, Inc and Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Air America Radio

RM: For the last twelve years, the comments have been - this is the Year of the Internet. Well, is it this year?
ES: I am one of those people who have been saying that the outcome of the election on the margin would be from the Internet. And, in 2006, I think the first step happened. Remember the George Allen and the macaca moment which caused the switching that seat and turned the Senate which, in turn, turned the tide against the Bush Agenda.

The second step got started 2.5 years ago - prior to then, there was no way to be a legitimate challenger in the Presidential election and invading the media without coming in “sideways”. Obama with a small team and via various media channels has been able to become a “real” challenger.

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Jumped into the T. Boone Pickens portion of the Big Tent event. Listened to Carl Pope, executive from Sierra Club who mentioned a couple of issues I am concerned about:

• The rescinding of the Executive Order on the protection of the coastlines now means that the Moratorium that was passed by Congress and signed by the President is coming to an end - soon. Even if we do nothing, the moratorium will expire and the coasts will be available for drilling - if Congress and/or the President does not take this as an issue.
• Recently, 18K acres of coastline was just released, and over 90% did not have bids - and the other 10% had dismal bids. For some reason, there is no action on those regions.

T. Boone is an interesting person - very interested in solving the problems, and getting other peopel to understand the problem.

There are over 250M vehicles on the road of America today. 1MM hybrid plug-ins would barely impact the gas consumption of the US. But if you could electrify the trucks - or switch to natural gas - could impact our gas imports by 30%.