E-President Faces Web Threat
Its days waning, the Clinton Administration is looking for a legacy. Is it the economy or impeachment? Whitewater or the Wye River agreement?
Why not the Internet?
Whatever historians decide, Sean Richardson reports for CBSNews.com, one thing's for sure: No other president has had to keep pace with the Internet and information technology like Bill Clinton.
From his launching of the White House web site in 1994 to his first Internet chat last November to his meeting with law enforcement officials and techonology leaders this week, Clinton gets credit from techno-types for being attentive to the rapidly evolving online world during his oval office tenure.
After all, it's been a complex evolution, a difficult one for a baby boomer president to follow. The Internet weaves through many larger issues including education, business, security and privacy issues, government reform and political campaigns. Terms unheard of seven years ago are now common speech, like cyber-crime, cyber-terrorism and e-commerce.
It's a good thing, then, that Clinton picked Al Gore as his running-mate. He invented the Internet, didn't he?
Well, no. But Gore's background and interest in technology issues has served the administration well, and are why the Clinton administration can claim some limited credit for the shape of the Internet today.
While in Congress, Gore sat on the science and technology committees and in 1984 introduced a bill that established the National Educational Software Corporation to provide venture capitol for educational software development. In 1992, Gore introduced the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act, meant to accelerate and move new technologies into schools, hospitals and businesses.
As the number-two man in the Clinton administration, Gore became the administration's unofficial point man on information technology issues.
In 1996, he launched national "Net Day" to begin the initiative to wire every classroom for the Internet. One of the Clinton administration's major talking points has long been the goal of connecting every school and library in the country to the 'net.
1997 saw the Administration begin promoting the growth of Internet business. Gore pushed for the development of a Global Information Infrastructure (GII) that would create a global network of computer networks to promote faster growth for e-commerce.
Gore called for an Electronic Bill of Rights in 1998 that would allow citizens to choose whether personal information is disclosed when they use the Internet. Also that year, Gore and the Administration strongly advocated a moratorium of taxes that would be imposed on Internet commerce.
In 1999, with information technology accounting for one-third of the United State's economic growth, Gore announced the administration's new Information Technology (IT2) initiative, requesting an additional $366 million in funding for information technology research.
In his final Sate of the Union address, the president called for effort to overcome what he called the "digital divide" between Americans with computer access and those without. "This is a national crusade," Clinton said. "We have got to do this and do it quickly."
While the evolution of the Internet and the "Information Superhighway" has forced the administration to tweak its legislative agenda, it has also caused some major changes in political strategy. The prosperous high-tech industry has become a new conduit for campaign contributions; now virtually all politicians court well-heeled Silicon Valley types. Gore has been particularly attentive, having visited California 65 times since 1992.