Google Sponsoring CPAC

Feb 4th, 2012

This raising more than a few eybrows. Google does seem out of place among the organizations on the CPAC sponsor list. Bloomberg reports:

"Google Inc., whose chairman has served as an adviser to President Barack Obama, is a sponsor of this month’s Conservative Political Action Conference, co-hosted by the Tea Party.

Google is one of nine main sponsors, alongside the National Rifle Association and the Heritage Foundation, according to the conference’s website. Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are slated to speak at the three-day event, which starts in Washington on Feb. 9. Google is the only business listed among the primary sponsors."

WebPro News shines some light on their motivations:

"Google also said that CPAC is a perfect chance to promote Google Politics & Elections. Google Politics & Elections is a dashboard they unveiled in January that allows users to track primary results, on-the-ground reporting, as well as find the most current news about all the candidates and issues. Google also plans to incorporate Google+ Hangouts into CPAC."

This is a bad move. Although Google is insisting they will be sponsoring events on both sides of the aisle, that doesn't wash. There is no equal opposite to CPAC. There is no comparable, nationally covered, annual gathering of radical liberals promoting fringe theories of social experimentation that they might sponsor.

Any controversy (and there will be controversy) will be seen as having Google's imprimatur of approval.