John McCain is setting a remarkable record: he is the major party Presidential nominee with the skimpiest policy platform since Warren Harding or perhaps Calvin Coolidge. He's making George Bush's year 2000 policy work look encyclopedic by comparison.

Because it's my area, I've searched his campaign's web site for his view relating to the information and communications technology sector of the economy, about one-sixth of the whole American economy.

Notwithstanding his tenure as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, where I first met him (and where I recall clearly that he used to have opinions), he has only two planks for a communications sector platform and none at all for information technology more generally. First, he is against "taxes that threaten [the Internet, because it is an] engine of economic growth and prosperity." So what taxes are those? He doesn't say. Does he oppose taxes on cable or telephone companies, which are the engines that drive Internet access? He doesn't say. Does he oppose sales taxes on products sold through e-commerce, which is the issue that has often been debated in Congress? He doesn't say.

Second, we find that "John McCain Will Ban New Cell Phone Taxes. John McCain understands that the same people that would tax e-mail will tax every text message - and even 911 calls. John McCain will prohibit new cellular telephone taxes." So does this mean he supports old cell phone taxes and won't repeal them? Who are the people who threaten to tax text messages or 911 calls? He doesn't say. I can't imagine who proposes, for instance, to tax a free call to a first responder. What is McCain thinking?

And that's it for his campaign's communications and information technology policies. If anyone can find any other evidence of positions on these topics, please do share it with me.

At least with respect to the information and communications technology sector of the economy, this is the Empty Talk Express we have running here on the McCain campaign web site.

On the other hand, if McCain were to put on his website the bulk of the views he expressed while on the Senate Commerce Committee, voters could see that he has not only failed to put those opinions into law (since they draw little support from others) but also that they are not drawn from a coherent philosophical framework. Putting it politely, TechCrunch reported that he has been "standoffish on net neutrality, mobile spectrum rules and the digital divide... [but he] did say that he was "illiterate" when it comes to computers."

There's no denying that McCain has a winning personality and in one-on-one conversations does not lack for charm. In that respect, he reminds me, of all the politicians I have met, most of the George Bush I knew in college: I could hardly dislike either of them, but the duties we each have toward each other and our world did not appear the same way to me as it did to them. Bush's unique point of view on many issues is now well-known to all Americans and his record low in approval ratings reflects how out of touch with the wishes of most Americans he really is. McCain is not any closer to the perspectives and dreams of most Americans.

To draw again from the information and communications agenda for illustration, to my recollection, McCain opposed the goal of connecting all Americans to telephone service, doesn't support having a national broadband policy that provides any way for rural or lower income people to get Internet access, didn't vote for the competition-providing Telecommunications Act of 1996, opposed putting the Internet into every classroom, and never seemed to care about monopoly or duopoly in any communications market. He said he wanted to auction spectrum but didn't vote for the legislation that authorized the FCC to do that. He often said he didn't like broadcasters, but he failed to stop them from postponing the end of analog television (and delaying the follow-on spectrum auction) when he was chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

In sum, he has long appeared to be against using law, regulation, spending or tax policy to encourage competition, innovation, educational technology, or widespread access to common mediums of communication.

Nor is he any closer to an understandable, much less a wise, position when it comes to green technology, another interest of mine, and a topic the mainstream media likes to cite as an example of McCain's maverick streak given that he has not disputed the reality of climate change, like some on the right. (It's a strange media that considers acceptance of scientific truth as a sign of independent thinking!) However, according to TechCrunch he has voted against some bills to fund renewable energy research. At an AlwaysOn conference in August, 2007, he was reported as having been "asked several times to provide details about how he would tackle global warming. His answer was to start by keeping the government out of the equation as much as possible...."I would simply let 1,000 flowers bloom," he said. "I'd like 1,000 of the best and smartest people to compete and I'd fund their efforts.""

By keeping the government "out of the equation" presumably he meant that there should be no government funding of green technology, either in terms of research support or demand stimulation. Yet he said he would 'fund [the 1,000 flowers]." It's hard to imagine government playing a bigger role than funding competitors, although it's equally hard to know what McCain meant by that phrase borrowed from, of all people, Mao Zedong. If he was referring to his own cap and trade bill, it doesn't actually fund competitors but he may have meant that it would create incentives for the private sector to fund alternative energy. In that case, we cannot guess what equation the government is to be kept out of.
In any event, notwithstanding McCain's ambiguity about what he wants the government to do in this vital area, the essential government role in promoting solar, wind, geothermal and other non-carbon innovations at least includes (1) tax and spending efforts that help overcome very high early-stage costs in a reliable and significant way coupled with (2) precise and efficient regulatory intervention that provides adequate access to the national electric grid for green technologies. Right now the Senate won't vote for permanent tax credits (or even another temporary renewal) for investment in green technologies, and one wonders why that recalcitrance doesn't draw McCain's wrath, since an investment tax credit is a form of funding the 1,000 flowers.

McCain has also blithely declared that "nuclear power is safe." He has endorsed the French-government sponsored effort to install nuclear power plants. According to one account, however, he was joking about the French commitment to nuclear power. All wry remarks about France are acceptable in American political discourse. But as to nuclear power, which most people don't want the President to consider humorous, we don't know if McCain would relax safety regulation, expedite licensing and use taxpayer funding to develop a large nuclear power industry in the United States. If so, he's not talking about funding a 1,000 flowers, but about a vast industrial effort that, to put it mildly, raises many more issues than McCain has ever answered, and certainly doesn't start with keeping the government "out of the equation."

The large truth well-known to mainstream media in Washington and to the candidate's colleagues is that John McCain has a well-established record of intemperate opinions, inadequately thought-through positions, and ill-considered views. In addition, over the years he has also shown a lack of interest or commitment to many important public policy topics. Where on occasion he has advanced interesting ideas, such as calling for broadcasters to provide free air time for political advertisements, he has not translated his suggestions into legislation, nor does he now even mention them in his campaign policy statements. A commonplace view about McCain on the Hill is that he has at most a transitory commitment to the achievement of practical goals through government. After Giuliani, Thompson and Romney all flubbed their chances, we can see why the White House turned to its fourth draft choice, John McCain, as the only viable alternative to Huckabee, who actually might have shaken up their establishment and even, if elected, withdrawn from Iraq. But the rest of America is not so constrained in its choice for President. We want a hard-working, knowledgeable, engaged, caring, and reasonable President. Based on his long record in Washington, McCain does not appear to be that person.