This is officially the dumbest idea in history. I mean I can see where the appeal is - a he is smart, and ruthless CEO whose company managed to almost completely monopolize the OS market, instantaneously kill all those who dared to enter direct competition with them, completely clowned DOJ, and is currently running circles around the legal powers of EU making them look inept and impotent.
But let’s face it, when - when it comes to technology Bill Gates is worst than the clueless lusers we have in the office now. It’s like giving executive power to the biggest lobbyist of them all. Guess what would happen if he got into the office?
- Forget about patent reform - Bill Gates has a vested interest to keep the patent system broken
- Forget about Adoption of open standards
- Forget about DMCA reform
- Remember TCPA? Well, President Bill could make it mandatory as part of the next patriot act like thing
- Forget about copyright reform
- Forget about Linux adoption at the governmental level
- Forget about open architecture, open source voting machines - Bill is Mr. Proprietary after all.
- Forget about any anti-trust legislation against MS
- Guess who would be throwing his weight around and putting pressure on EU to let MS off the hook?
- Can GPL survive if the executive branch of government completely abhors it’s existence and doubts its legality?
We do not know his effectiveness as a politician, but we do know what are his values with respect to technology sector. Bill Gates stands of everything I oppose to as a Linux user, and open source/open standards supporter. We know he is a convicted monopolist, skillful lobbyist, and that he pulled many dirty tricks to get his own in the business world.
What is his political affiliation though? Whose mandate would he be running on?
What is his stance on the war? How about national security? Or emigration? Or unemployment? Or taxes? Or minimum wage?
What are his views on education, health care and social security?
How would he fix our budget deficit? Is he for big government? Is he one of the trickle-down republitards?
We don’t know. And these are the kinds of questions we should be asking about any candidate. Running a country is very different from running a successful business. Democracy is not about making profit, but about serving the interest people to the best of your ability. We know he can turn a profit by ruthless, merciless business cunning. But can he run a country? That is the important question.
