Google CEO Eric Schmidt Endorsing Barack Obama

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt has announced recently that he has decided to side with presidential candidate, Barack Obama.  Schmidt insists that this is a personal decision and does not affect the company’s position for the Obama campaign.

Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell also announced his support for Obama earlier today.

Google is currently working through several governmental legislation processes that revolve around the limitation of targeted online advertising, telecomm company Internet service price setting, and the partnership with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO).

“My sense is, the Justice Department makes judgments on these issues independent of politics,” stated the Google CEO. “It would be unfair to Justice to imply [that supporting Sen. Obama] would make a difference.”

Tech executives, both current and former, are formally involved with the presidential campaigns.  John McCain gave a shout-out to former eBay CEO Meg Whitman during the second presidential debate, but was wrong about her contributions to the online auction company.  Former HP CEO, Carly Fiorina and Cisco CEO John Chambers both support the Republican party.

Obama is a supporter of net neutrality which is possibly one of the reasons why Schmidt decided to give his endorsement.  Google as a whole donated $487,355 to Obama and $20,600 to McCain as of late August.  Schmidt personally has not made any donations to either party.

The Google CEO will appear alongside Senator Obama this Tuesday at an event in Florida.

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