Can Bill Gates be President of the USA?

[crazy grady]

That's the question, could Bill gates become president of the United States, considering he would accept the sorry assed 400,000 USD salary plus public housing. How would he do?

Maybe we could expand the question, can anyone of intellegence and a positive background do the job? george W. Bush was a weak state governor and businessman, Clinton was a career politician, Bush was a politico who was VP and the head of the CIA, Reagan was a former governor and actor, Carter was a nuclear engineer in the Navy and a farmer. With these clowns, how bad could gates do? He has made more money than anyone in the history of the Republic has together, he has employed millions directly or indirectly, he is respected and known worldwide. Why not? Who says Gates cannot do it?

If 2004 was between Bush, Dean or Gates, who would you choose. Some of you ae probably thinking of Perot, but I think Gates is a different act from him. Or do you think that someone is trained in the art of politics and one either has it or not. Politics is a dangerous and maddening game in and of itsself, but has not Gates fought enough battles to get where he's at.

The dude became a billionaire at 31. His philosophy on what would change the American spirit would be interesting to me, if he ever decided to do it.

GRAdy

[ravage2]

I don't think the American electorate would go for someone rich, especially not the freaking richest guy on the planet. GWB took strides to portray himself as a regular guy, as many of the current Democratic presidential hopefuls are.

[Lord Ashtar]

I would certainly be interested on his views on how to fix the national debt.

[scotandrsn]

We already know what kind of leader he'd be. He'd have the entire government using nothing but email (using MS outlook on MS Exchange Server, of course). Look through his book "Business at the spped of thought" before you jump to the conclusion that the guy is fit to run the government.

[John Mace]

Originally posted by Lord Ashtar
I would certainly be interested on his views on how to fix the national debt.

I'd be more interested to see if he could finally fix the Windows Operating System. First things first.

[Lord Ashtar]

Fair enough, John.

[XT]

From John Mace

I'd be more interested to see if he could finally fix the Windows Operating System. First things first.

ROFLMAO!! Me too. If he does that, I might vote for him for president myself!!

-XT

[E-Sabbath]

Jimmy Carter is one of the smartest, kindest, nicest men you will ever meet.

Lousy president. It's not just about brains.

[hlanelee]

Why would he want to be president. I once observed that anyone really qualified to be president already has a better job.

[BrotherCadfael]

The Constitition sets the requirements for the job: You have to be native-born (sorry, Arnold), and at least 35 years old.

That's it. So Bill Gates could indeed become President.

Oh, and you also have to get a majority of the votes in the Electoral College...

[hlanelee]

Or the courts will decide what the Electoral College meant to do or should have done.

[Reuben]

I can't cite, but I remember BillG emphatically stating (some years ago, c.1997 at a guess) that he had no political ambitions whatsoever; nor would he have, ever. Bit of a shame really, because I've come to think he could not fail to do a fantastic job providing he cut himself off from Microsoft first. Bill's greatest virtue is that he pays serious attention to details, which is surely the key to success in all things.

[What's wrong with Windows OS anyway? Windows 2000 and XP both work fine on my (many) machines, and they give me far less cause to swear (per hour of actual use, mind) than any other OSes I know of.]

[DreadCthulhu]

Can Bill Gates be President of the USA

No, because a Linux fanatic would shoot him first.

[XT]

From Reuben

[What's wrong with Windows OS anyway? Windows 2000 and XP both work fine on my (many) machines, and they give me far less cause to swear (per hour of actual use, mind) than any other OSes I know of.]

Dig deeper, my young padawan...then you will ask yourself the true question...whats RIGHT with them. Its a bit easier to answer than 'whats wrong with them' which would fill up volumes....

-XT

[spingears]

What do you want in this country, a tolal lack of securityl
Windows is like swiss cheese, despite continued warnings about the problem it continues on and on.
One day and probably not too far off a completely new Personal Computer Configuration and a matching OS that will outstrip the product from WA state will be on the market.

That said a strong willed leader whose first interest is the USA will have to come forth or it's down the tubes!

[ITR champion]

Hmmm, many issues brought up here.

First of all, if Bill Gates wanted to be President, he would become President eventually. Spend enough money blasting negative adds at your opponents and you'll eventually win. It's probably too late for the '04 election, but he could win in '08 if he really wanted to. Find some House seat where the incumbent is retiring. Spend ten million to get it in '04. Spend fifty million moving up to the Senate or a Governor's Office in '06. Then he would be ready for the White House by '08. Nothing could stop him.

Would he be a good President? Tough to say. He's given billions in charity donations to environmental and poverty causes, so it seems likely he would make those top priorities. That would certainly be an improvement over any recent administration. However, we know neither where he stands on a huge range of financial and social issues, and we also don't now what priority he places on each. Would he actually use his veto pen to stop Congress from racking up pork barrel spending? What sort of Supreme court nominees would he give us? Could he negotiate in trade and other issues to win the good will of the international communitty? We can't answer any of those things at this time.

As for Windows. XP, I suppose, is fine for people who use their PC just for word processing, internet, and a few other basic tasks, assuming they don't mind an occasional virus. For serious technical tasks, it simply doesn't have enough versatility. In a recent software testing project that I'm part of, we had to chuck out Windows and use FreeBSD instead right at the start, becaust Windows just doesn't provide any functionality for controlling the network stack.

[Bryan Ekers]

Originally posted by Lord Ashtar
I would certainly be interested on his views on how to fix the national debt.

He'll pay it off with the change from his seat-cushions.

[Mr2001]

He'd probably propose some interesting changes to antitrust law.

[jjimm]

Well I hope Air Force One doesn't crash as often as Windows does.

[Shade]

I hear working in microsoft is pretty good. They don't always used MS products, for instance, if something else is better. They treat people quite well to get good people. Etc. We're annoyed because MS can be pretty shitty to other people and companies sometimes, but few people deny Bill didn't do well for MS.

If Bill was President, remember, you'd be on the inside. He wouldn't be screwing you, you'd all be screwing other countries. I think it could go well.

I doubt he'd get elected though because everyone's still bitter about the paperclip he foisted on us.

[II Gyan II]

Originally posted by ITR champion

As for Windows. XP, I suppose, is fine for people who use their PC just for word processing, internet, and a few other basic tasks, assuming they don't mind an occasional virus.

I run 3dsmax 5 and Photoshop 7 for hours, without crashes. Sys is 2.4/512DDR333

[Marley23]

He has made more money than anyone in the history of the Republic has together

No he hasn't. He's the richest guy in the Republic, but he hasn't outearned everyone else put together.

First of all, if Bill Gates wanted to be President, he would become President eventually. Spend enough money blasting negative adds at your opponents and you'll eventually win.

Not necessarily. Michael Huffington spent $35 million to run for the Senate in California and lost. Perot was a billionare (Steve Forbes too) and I'm pretty sure they each spent at least some of their own fortunes, but they didn't come close to winning.

[Marley23]

If 2004 was between Bush, Dean or Gates, who would you choose.

Dean. If it was Bush vs. Gates, I'd move to the frickin' moon.

Or do you think that someone is trained in the art of politics and one either has it or not.

That's not a 100% truism, but politics is indeed different from business. One important thing is trust. It's really hard to get anywhere in politics if people don't trust you, and I don't think many people could trust Bill Gates. Everyone thinks he's trying to take over the world, which doesn't do much for one's popularity. The publicity over the anti-trust suit and such do a great deal to portray him as ruthless, which doesn't help either.

Politics is a dangerous and maddening game in and of itsself, but has not Gates fought enough battles to get where he's at.

Definitely. He's a very skilled businessman and he's definitely fought plenty of battles. I'd say there just a very different kind of battles from the one's he would have to fight in politics. You don't often have to compromise with your enemies in business.

[ITR champion]

Originally posted by Marley23
Not necessarily. Michael Huffington spent $35 million to run for the Senate in California and lost. Perot was a billionare (Steve Forbes too) and I'm pretty sure they each spent at least some of their own fortunes, but they didn't come close to winning.

Huffington was a Republican running in one of the most liberal states. With that sort of money he probably could have won in most other states. Perot spent $65,000,000 in 1992, which was less than the other two major condidates.

Look at it this way: predictions have Shrub spending $200,000,000 in 2004, and the Democrats' candidate spending probably around $120-$130 million. To Gates, that's pocket change. He could spend ten times as much as the two combined if he wanted to. He could flood every radio station and every TV channel in the country with ads for months before the election. He could buy ads every day in every single newspaper and magazine.

Consider John Corzine, who ran for Senate in New Jersey in 2000. He had no experience, wasn't a very good speaker, and made a number of stupid mistakes during the campaign. What he had was ten times as much money as anyone else. And he won.

[Matchka]

I'd vote for him. Just for a change in attitude from the oval office. And as for the government shutting down for no apparent reason from time to time, well, who's to say that's HIS fault?

[Shade]

Originally posted by ITR champion
Look at it this way: predictions have Shrub spending $200,000,000 in 2004, and the Democrats' candidate spending probably around $120-$130 million. To Gates, that's pocket change. He could spend ten times as much as the two combined if he wanted to. He could flood every radio station and every TV channel in the country with ads for months before the election. He could buy ads every day in every single newspaper and magazine.

What are you assuming as Bill Gates's net worth? This site estimates that he owns $31bil of MS stock. For comparison, say most of my worth was a $200,000 house. $0.2bil would correspond to $2000 - would this be pocket change? Possibly we are using the term differently - it'd be a frighteningly small sum to buy PcyOTUS with, but not what I have in my pocket at any given time.

However, they do have an interesting suggestion about how he could win an election:

In 2000, George W. Bush won the US Presidental Election with a total of 50,456,062 votes. The electoral college aside, if Bill wanted to be President, he could have bought 50,456,063 votes (one more than Pres. Bush got), and pay each voter $614.49. (Yes, we know that Gore got more popular votes than Bush.) Thanks to David Johansen (no, not that David Johansen!) for the suggestion.

BTW, sorry if I got too notpicky there. Its just that while Gates has an insane amount of money, it's not just so much that everything else pales in comparison: you do need to compare.

[Magiver]

Originally posted by John Mace
I'd be more interested to see if he could finally fix the Windows Operating System. First things first.

The last one works OK. Same with his office software. Took him long enough though.

He would make a great emperor but a lousy president. Too much BS.

[ITR champion]

Shade:

I was just using the term "pocket change" to indicate that he could spend that much without any change at all in his current standard of living, even considering that he has to pay capitol gains tax on any stock that he sells. Of course, he's one of the few people who's quality of life would go down if he had to settle for the White House, Presidential Limo, Air Force One, etc...

[Governor Quinn]

Originally posted by ITR champion
Huffington was a Republican running in one of the most liberal states.

In 1994 (the year Huffington ran for Senate), the Reps won the Governorship, the statewide offices of Treasurer, Secretary of State, Insurance Comissioneer, and Attorney General, 2 of the four seats on the state Board of Equalization, five or six House seats, and control of the State Assembly for the first time since the 1968 election.

[gluteus maximus]

I think there might be a conflict of interest. Don't most Fed. departments use Windows systems?

Oh, nevermind.

If he really wanted to be President Gates, he would have already donated voting software nationwide.

[Shade]

Originally posted by ITR champion
Shade:

I was just using the term "pocket change" to indicate that he could spend that much without any change at all in his current standard of living, even considering that he has to pay capitol gains tax on any stock that he sells.

Fair enough. Sorry, I just thought that it was a point worth making.

Of course, he's one of the few people who's quality of life would go down if he had to settle for the White House, Presidential Limo, Air Force One, etc...

[wakimika]

Who knows? Maybe a successful businessman would make a good president.

I'd be far more intrigued by a Steve Jobs candidacy.

[ravage2]

Well we know how Gates would have handled Afghanistan and Iraq:
just buy them!