Where do 2012's presidential candidates stand on videogames?

Come November, Barack Obama will be defending his seat as president of the United States against one of the Republican candidates currently competing for the party’s ticket. Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and several others are meeting for regular debates while, state by state, the Republican primaries chisel down the choices.

But though they’ll discuss pressing social and economic issues, one thing they infrequently get into is their stance on videogames. Sure, it sounds trivial, but the industry is still fairly new and unregulated (by the government), making it a prime target for political scapegoating whenever anything needs to take the blame for anything.

So, what do they think? While some of them haven’t all said that much on the subject, we’ve done the research for you, and brought you the information you need to know what each candidate thinks of your favorite obsession.

Mitt Romney

In 2007, Willard Mitt Romney brought up videogames when answering a political questionnaire, saying “I want to restore values so children are protected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex, and perversion."

That, alone, isn't all that bad, but the other half of the quote is more worrisome: "I’ve proposed that we enforce our obscenity laws again and that we get serious against those retailers that sell adult video games that are filled with violence and that we go after those retailers.”

First, his reference to "adult games" shows that he doesn't fully understand (or know about) the rating system. Second, the obscenity law Romney references is infrequently used due to its conflicts with freedom of speech (and because the US actually has no legal definition for what is and what isn’t obscene).

Romney mentioned games again soon after in a 2008 advertisement entitled “Ocean,” where he said that he is “deeply troubled about the culture that surrounds our kids today.” After discussing the Columbine school shooting and quoting political author Peggy Noonan, he added “I’d like to see less violence and sex on TV and in videogames and in movies.” Since then he hasn’t said much on the issue, though we’ve no reason to believe he’s suddenly become a convert.

Rick Santorum

Richard John "Rick" Santorum hasn’t said much about games recently, but in 2006 he used them as a proving point for his bipartisanship and ability to work with others using an... interesting analogy. During his run for Congress in Pennsylvania, he ran a political ad that showed him walking around a wrestling ring as wrestlers beat each other senseless. This was a metaphor for Washington. Near the end of the video, Santorum explained that he was “working with Hillary Clinton to limit inappropriate material in videogames.” And then he punched a guy in the face, without a glint of irony.

That never really went anywhere; obviously, as we’re all still enjoying limitless inappropriate material in our videogames, but it’s still worth noting that he thought it important enough to bring up in a political ad. He also lost that election, so there's a chance that he might have reevaluated his priorities since the ad ran.

Check out the next page to see what other candidates think about games...