From Beer Summit to Tech Summit: Obama Clinking Glasses with Tech Elite

President Obama has a long history of sitting down with warring parties to discuss matters in a civilized fashion. On July 30, 2009, President Obama sat down with Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge police department and Henry Louis Gates of Harvard to smooth over an alleged case of racial profiling that resulted in Gates's arrest. You can read plenty about that emotionally charged case all over the internet because it turned into a media circus. Encouragingly, Obama has moved beyond the role of babysitting adults and teaching them how to treat each other with respect. This week he sat down to dinner at the home of legendary venture capitalist John Doerr (Netscape, Google, Amazon, enough said) with leaders of seemingly every important tech behemoth in the nation. Now that's a summit worth writing about.

The guest list reads like a TechCrunch headline reel. Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Carol Bartz (Yahoo!), John Chambers (Cisco), Dick Costolo (Twitter), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Reed Hastings (Netflix), and Art Levinson (Genetech) were in attendance. What could Obama possibly need to discuss with this technological cabal that necessitated bringing them all together under one roof?

Obama has spent a good portion of his time lately parrying criticism over the laggard economy. Add America's lingering paranoia over its struggle to remain the world's sole superpower (as evidenced by the Amy Chua fiasco), and you can see that he's had a lot on his plate. What's one industry that has been both a reliable engine for economic growth and an area where the US of A remains the undisputed leader? You guessed correctly if you guessed technology (software would have been extra credit).

"Promise to behave?"

The President's willingness to reach out to Silicon Valley, the home of some of the most vehement free market proponents, is an encouraging departure from partisan stereotypes. Combine this gesture with the comments he made during the State of the Union and the opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, and Obama is in danger of becoming a pro-business Democrat. In his editorial, Obama writes, "America's free market has not only been the source of dazzling ideas and path-breaking products, it has also been the greatest force for prosperity the world has ever known... But throughout our history, one of the reasons the free market has worked is that we have sought the proper balance." He suggests that America's economy works because it encourages risk takers while providing the regulatory support for those entrepreneurs to succeed and reap the benefits.

I'm more than a little skeptical of anyone who "orders a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations" (Obama's words). Excuse me if I'm worried that a simple pronouncement can fix 200 years of ossfied bureaucracy. Talk is cheap, but I'm certainly willing to give him a chance. Acknowledging the centrality of innovative companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Twitter to the economic recovery is a great first step. Obama, here's a toast to you.

P.S. For some hilarious tech satire, check out the first comment here.