Apple, Silicon valley line up behind Obama

Chauncey Dupree
|
October 25, 2008
|
Share

Apple employees are following most of the Silicon Valley and giving money hand over fist to the Obama campaign compared to McCain's.  The valley's other behemoth, Google, is also lopsided toward Obama in employee giving.

Both Apple and Google (company, not employees) took up another traditionally liberal cause this week by supporting California's No on Proposition 8 .  Apple  announced Friday that it would donate $100,000 to the No on Prop 8 campaign, which opposes a measure to ban gay marriage that California voters will consider a week from Tuesday.

Of note, former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, sits on Apple's board.

Full list of donations by company below:

 

Comments (18)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 25, 2008 - 2:41pm

How is supporting gay-marriage in any way centrist?

Benjamin Dobson | October 25, 2008 - 2:42pm

Is this the companies themselves, or their employees? Seems odd that there is so much variation, if the latter, or so much bias, if the former.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 25, 2008 - 2:48pm

If the chart is right wrt google, then the words in the text are backward.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 25, 2008 - 3:19pm

Remember that McCain has accepted Federal Funding for his campaign, which means that donations are quite a bit less valuable to his campaign. That's why so few people are giving money to McCain - the rules for accepting Government-funded money means that donations to his campaign just isn't as important.

In contrast, Obama decided against taking federal money for his campaign. That means that means donations are very important to the Obama campaign, and therefore the higher donation amount.

People on both sides know this. Yeah, Obama is raking in a lot, but he's 100% dependent on it. Yeah, McCain isn't raking in as much, but his supporters recognize that donations don't mean much to his campaign.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 25, 2008 - 3:20pm

Being that tory, or conservatives in Canada, the UK, NZ, and other Commonwealth countries have no issue with gay marriage or civil partnerships I think the position could be centrist or liberal by US standards.

Joseph (not verified) | October 25, 2008 - 11:35pm

Apple, Intel, Yahoo, and other Silicon valley companies depend on the STABILITY afforded by living and working in a FREE nation.

We all collectively know that America's policies on defense, taxation, and spending are the wrong policies. We are bankrupting our nation morally and economically.

If it's allowed to continue, America will no longer be a free nation. Those Silicon valley companies will have to move their operations to other countries.

Many of those companies are doing just that!

Morally, the USA Patriot Act and undeclared wars are examples of Congress' and the President's willingness to ignore the Constitution. What did the Democrats do to stop the Patriot Act? Nothing. What did the Democrats do to stop the President from going to war without a declaration? Nothing. The Republicans got a free pass from the Democrats and some people are suggesting we hand over control to the Democrats!

Economically, the national debt that the Republicans and Democrats have built over the years will destroy our economy.

Both McCain and Obama offer nothing more than more of the same. Every charge of corruption and poor decisions brought by the Democrats against the Republicans can be turned around and brought against the Democrats. Both parties are equally guilty. Both the Democratic candidate and Republican candidate respect their respective parties and their respective party's stances which are the wrong stances.

Does it really matter how one commits suicide when the end result is the same?

Who here can say Obama is honestly better than McCain and keep a straight face?

If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny. Silicon valley is donating huge sums of money to a candidate that will continue America down the path to depression.

Joseph (not verified) | October 25, 2008 - 11:38pm

The above should have said: "Both the Democratic candidate and Republican candidate REPRESENT their respective parties and their respective party's stances which are the wrong stances."

johnthevulcan (not verified) | October 26, 2008 - 10:53am

the comment above was written by a complete douche and does not represent the thoughts or opinions of anyone worth sharing o2 with....

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2008 - 6:14pm

i've been surprised by the public reaction to this news, as evidenced on apple rumor blogs at least. apple insider's comments to this item are now up to a staggering 675, a huge number of which display strong opposition and even outright homophobia. i thought mac users were, well, better than that. it's almost like reading the comments on youtube.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2008 - 6:38pm

Yeah, I was surprised too. Even MacRumors' thread, which was locked to newer members as a troll control attempt, was saddeningly negative. I was surprised that so many long time Apple users were so against such a show of support, but I guess that might have been making too large of an assumption about the social leanings of Apple users. I guess we're not necessarily the liberal, civil-rights-loving snobs we're made out to be.

I'm proud of Apple and Google for their Anti-8 support and Silicon Valley in general's support of Obama.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2008 - 10:27pm

It's simply grotesque the amount money that gets thrown around in politics.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2008 - 10:39pm

I hate to break it to you, but not all Mac users are rank in file Democrats.

Half the country does not like Obama. The other half does not like McCain. This election will be no land slide. It will be very, very close.

Honestly, I don't want to vote for either one. Same old corrupt politics and neither one is going to do anything about it.

Sorry for ruffling your feathers. Obama is not "Messiah" a lot of people make him out to be.

DW (not verified) | October 27, 2008 - 1:03am

As Gizmodo pointed out sometime ago, the Steve Jobs household - along with the Bill Gates household - donated the max amount of individual contributions to the Obama campaign.

If I recall correctly, the Jobs family also donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign... not so much to John McCain, though

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 27, 2008 - 2:42pm

I like it that they will all pay much more in taxes under Obama. Can't wait.

tobias (not verified) | October 28, 2008 - 8:52am

i agree with the above statements about "distributing the wealth," that just isnt right. because someone worked hard and made wise decisions doesnt mean that they should be punished.

im all for finding resolutions for poverty and other economical situations that are present in our country but i think we as a nation should handle it in a fair manner. the morale of our country would benefit greatly from a fair and straight forward resolution.

im not sure either candidate is offering a resolution that appeals to me. all of this money spent on campaigning is a bit out of hand. i think the uses of sources like twitter and so on are great ways to both campaign and be economically resourceful at the same time. there are many other avenues to explore and i would be impressed to see some resourcefulness used in our current financial situation. appreciation of the current situation by action instead of hollow promises would get my vote.

sorry to rant.

tobias (not verified) | October 28, 2008 - 8:58am

Bill Gates & John Hodgman
vs.
Steve Jobs & Kevin Rose

which way would you vote? haha.