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By any standard, the Internet ranks as one of the leading innovations of our time. It has revolutionized everything from commerce to medicine to entertainment, all within the confines of a generation.

Better yet, it has done so largely without government regulation.

So, why would President Obama think now is the time to turn back the clock to Depression-era rules written when all telephones were black, hard-wired and hung on a wall?

Obama said this week he believes high-speed Internet service providers should be regulated through “the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality,” thus endorsing a proposal to empower the Federal Communications Commission to require Internet service providers to treat all web traffic equally and not charge content providers for better access.

The FCC is debating whether Internet service providers, such as Verizon and Comcast, can choose to block or prioritize delivering traffic to certain websites.

That policy is under consideration because a federal appeals court decision in January struck down rules that barred companies from doing so.