# Can Bill Gates be President of the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 27, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580 "2003-11-27T14:59:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/21 "2003-11-28T12:47:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/22 "2003-11-28T12:58:45Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/23 "2003-11-28T13:03:45Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/24 "2003-11-28T21:51:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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](http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/candidates/follow.money/perot/index.shtml) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Matchka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Matchka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matchka)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/25 "2003-11-28T22:06:26Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/26 "2003-11-28T23:39:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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](http://www.quuxuum.org/~evan/bgnw.html) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/27 "2003-11-29T02:18:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/28 "2003-11-29T06:15:38Z")
**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… ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/29 "2003-11-29T15:58:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/30 "2003-11-29T17:19:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/31 "2003-11-30T01:47:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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… \*\* 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wakimika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f08c70/32.png) [@wakimika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wakimika)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/32 "2003-11-30T03:50:21Z")
Who knows? Maybe a _successful_ businessman would make a good president. I’d be far more intrigued by a Steve Jobs candidacy. ---
**Author:** ![ravage2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d07c76/32.png) [@ravage2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ravage2)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580/33 "2003-11-30T12:52:35Z")
Well we know how Gates would have handled Afghanistan and Iraq: just buy them! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-bill-gates-be-president-of-the-usa/215580.md?page=1)