Are the political winds shifting in favor of net neutrality?

The unknown factor that keeps advocates of network neutrality up at night is whether our political leaders will have the spine to resist the principle's enemies -- the Comcasts and Verizons of the world, who wish to profiteer from charging website providers extra for preferential access to your home and business. A few glimmers of hope have emerged in recent days. Combined with an analysis showing that the overwhelming majority of comments flowing in to the Federal Communications Commission favor an "open Internet" -- that is, net neutrality -- statements by President Barack Obama and possible presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suggested that the principle is gathering political weight. But advocates shouldn't declare victory yet. This is Washington, after all, where money talks. And the would-be tollkeepers on the information superhighway already are very, very rich.