President-Elect Obama Is Plugged In On Technology Issues

President-elect Barack Obama is a fan of technology, but the attention his administration gives telecommunications and high- technology issues will be overshadowed by his head-on confrontation of the global financial crisis and the war in Iraq. "The incoming President of the United States this January will face the most difficult set of issues in terms of a nation's economic position...since of any president" since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Blair Levin, who worked at the Federal Communications Commission under Democratic Chairman Reed Hundt and was an early supporter of Obama. President Obama is a firm believer in high-speed Internet as a tool of change, which could drive early action in his administration toward blanketing the country with broadband networks. Government funds are tight, but Levin said the cash shortage could work to Obama's advantage when pushing for Internet build-out. "The use of networks is often a cost savings," he said. "One reason why the economics of the 1990s were so good was you had the fiscal leadership in the White House. Another was you had two very big things driving investment cycles: wireless and the Internet."