Schmidt Goes Global

Looks like Google CEO Eric Schmidt just can't stay out of politics these days. Schmidt endorsed Barack Obama for president last year and campaigned for him in the closing days of the election; his close ties to Obama led to speculation that the new president would appoint Schmidt chief technology officer in his Cabinet, but Schmidt curtly dismissed the scuttlebutt. Now, the Google bigwig is back in the game, agreeing to sit on a new British government council and advise a parliamentary leader on international issues and economic recovery. But here's the catch: the leader in question is David Cameron, the leader of the Tories. Of course, a British conservative is an entirely different species than the American breed. But Schmidt's sudden transpartisanship is interesting after having spent so much time courting America's foremost liberal leader.

But if Schmidt really wants to get into international politics, he might want to think about Italy first. Worried over the rising number of videos celebrating the Mafia, Italian lawmakers have proposed laws that would ban YouTube altogether unless Google scrubbed every single film that glorifies the mob from its site. Schmidt may enjoy mulling over the global economic crisis, but down in Rome there's a slightly more pressing matter that demands his attention.