Talk about risk taking. Most business and finance types are careful to hedge their bets in an election year, but most business types aren’t like Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who’s hitting the campaign trail for his favorite candidate.

Schmidt, who backs Illinois Senator Barack Obama, is careful to insist that his personal views don’t reflect the views of his company. But you’ve got to wonder about the risk that Schmidt’s active campaigning on Obama’s behalf might backfire on his company should Obama lose on Nov. 4.

A Google spokesman recently told eWeek that “Eric is actively campaigning for Barack Obama because he believes that it is time for a change in America. In addition, his personal views on technology and energy are similar to Senator Obama’s. Google of course remains neutral in the campaign.”

But should John McCain defeat the Illinois senator, Google’s many and varied interests could be cast in a poor light as it tries to convince the government its search advertising practices don’t break privacy rules or that the administration should support other technology-related issues that could benefit the search giant.

Most corporate execs have an opinion about how one candidate or another could hurt or help their business. But most of the most savvy exces are careful to be sure they don’t alienate those who may come to power.

Is it possible Schmidt knows something about what’s coming that the rest of us haven’t figured out yet?

Tags: campaign, Google, obama, schmidt