The presidential election doesn’t come up often in Silicon Valley, and Silicon Valley doesn’t come up often in the election. Throughout this campaign year, I haven’t had a single conversation with anyone in these parts about the presidential race—not a friendly chat about the horserace, not a serious conversation about the issues. Meanwhile, to the extent that the candidates think of the tech industry, it’s as marketing—Obama’s doing great things with Twitter!—and as an ATM: Both candidates have raised hundreds of millions online, and they both make frequent visits to the Valley to hoover up this industry’s cash hordes. It’s no surprise that the educated blue-coasters who make up the tech business have given more of their money to Obama than to Romney, but other than the money and some now-faded bumper ...
