Is Google Wrong to Take Sides?

Everyday when I drive to work I see a LOT of small businesses with political signs up on their property. Most are small eateries, and most seem to favor McCain, even though Obama's tax plan would actually let them keep more of their money then McCains.

But Google is different, why? Well it is a massive company, as far as market cap goes you will find fewer larger. Matt Asay over at Cnet says Google CEO Eric Schmidt should stay out of politics because his name is too tied to his brand.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has officially thrown his weight behind Barack Obama in the US presidential race. I find it a bit unseemly and unfair to the employees at Google, even though many probably support Obama.

I felt the same about then eBay CEO Meg Whitman taking a public stand for John McCain, though at least she was on her way out of the eBay CEO chair at the time.

I agree to a point here. I once worked for a company that had its' chairman in the local news almost everyday with his support of George Bush during the last election, and I can tell you I got sick of hearing everyone talking about it.

It would be different if this were Schmidt espousing a particular political cause that has direct financial ramifications for Google, like net neutrality, but this is not the case, and it's unfair to his employees to tie up the Google brand in any political party, because a political party's platform includes all sorts of issues that have no place in the message of a technology company.

How can you assume that his support isn't for financial reasons? History has shown the economy generally does better under Democratic administrations, and if everyone is doing better then Google is doing better.

Far be it from me to say that Asay doesn't have a point, but I'm sure the CEO of one of the worlds biggest companies has his reasons for making his personal opinion known on this years presidential elections.

Full article here.