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Get on the 'Gates for President' Bandwagon

Posted by Zonk on Thu Nov 30, 2006 05:24 PM
from the jobs-for-vice-president dept.
netbuzz writes "Dilbert's Scott Adams kicked off the idea in his November 19th blog post, saying there isn't anything wrong with this country that President Bill Gates couldn't cure in less time than it takes to get a new operating system out the door. Today, the idea is moving forward with a brand-new 'Bill Gates for President' Web site. Adams is also back on the campaign trail, flogging the site and Gates' candidacy." A blog post at Network World includes a lot of eye-rolling about this idea, but neither Adams nor the folks at the 'Gates for President' website seem to be taking this lightly.
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[+] Scott Adams Suggests Bill Gates For President 1224 comments
gerrysteele writes to point out a recent post to the Dilbert blog, in which Scott Adams discusses the atheist ascendancy in America and rationalizes the need for an atheist leader. From the article: "Ask a deeply religious Christian if he'd rather live next to a bearded Muslim that may or may not be plotting a terror attack, or an atheist that may or may not show him how to set up a wireless network in his house. On the scale of prejudice, atheists don't seem so bad lately. I think that in an election cycle or two you will see an atheist business leader emerge as a legitimate candidate for president. And his name will be Bill Gates."
[+] 'Gates for President' Group Gives Up 274 comments
netbuzz writes "Dilbert creator Scott Adams had done his best to make this fantasy (or nightmare, depending on your point of view) a viable notion, but after three months of trying the group's leader has acknowledged that it's unlikely Gates will give up his current gig. They've tossed in the towel." Here is our original coverage of this ill-conceived plan.
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  • by gevmage (213603) * on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:25PM (#17056146) Homepage

    Hmmm...I seem to remember that Bill say that he was going to be stepping down as Microsoft CEO in a couple of years...right about when the 2008 Presidential campaign would be heating up.

    Microsoft decided to get into the console gaming arena without any prior experience. Perhaps Bill is thinking this same thing with politics. After all, Arnold Schwatzenegger and Jesse Ventura both won state governorships primarily on name recognition. And as much as I despise is company's tactics, he is quite intelligent and has real management skills.

  • by Salvance (1014001) * on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:25PM (#17056170) Homepage Journal
    Geez ... if people thought Dick Cheney was cold and ruthless, wait until they have Bill Gates in charge. Plus, imagine some of the innovations we'd see:

    Pres Gates Day 1: The U.S. needs to become the most innovative country in the world, so I have decided in interest of attaining this goal we will rebuild Washington D.C. ... the new city will be named Capitol 2.0
    Pres Gates Day 365: The Capital 2.0 is running ahead of schedule, I know it's been tough living and working out of trailers, but we should be finished within a year
    Pres Gates Day 700: Due to the new competition from Tokyo's rebuilding operations, we have decided to restart our Capitol 2.0 project, but the delay will be worth it since our new Capitol will be even better than the original one planned
    Pres Gates Day 1000: We have found that the Capitol 2.0 subway system was incompatible with the Capitol 2.0 sewage system, so we will rebuild DC's old subway system and try to make it work within the Capitol 2.0 structure
    Pres Gates on his last day: On my final day in office, I am proud to unveil Capitol 2.0 ... at first you may think it looks just like DC, but we actually repainted all the buildings, and added innovative new parking meters that destroy your car if you try to park in same parking spot more than 3 times.
  • BSoD (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dutchmaan (442553) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:26PM (#17056196) Homepage
    "Blue State of Death" ?
  • shock! (Score:5, Funny)

    by joe 155 (937621) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:26PM (#17056202) Journal
    "there isn't anything wrong with this country that President Bill Gates couldn't cure in less time than it takes to get a new operating system out the door"

    Have things really got that bad?
  • Remember (Score:5, Insightful)

    by s20451 (410424) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:26PM (#17056212) Journal
    Steve Forbes for president? Or Ross Perot? Look how far those two smart, rich, successful businessmen went.

  • by PingXao (153057) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:27PM (#17056234)
    My calendar is about to say December 1, not April 1. This is really dumb. I don't bash Bill Gates a lot. I admire him in some ways. But come on, who wants a president whose company has been conviceted of being an illegal monopoly, that has been found gulty of being a predator, that has stifled innovation while claiming the opposite, that has run roughshod over consumer rights and then tried to weasel out of every penalty anyone ever tried to impose on it?

    Oh, wait... is he running as a Republican?
  • 1. He wants to buy an old Cesna, paintit flashy colors, and call it Air Force '95.
    2. He heard that some government agencies were using UNIX.
    3. He wants to get that illegal sports car in SF Bay into the US.
    4. He just thinks it would be neat to be president of two big thingies.
    5. He's hot for Janet Reno.
    6. His ego needs to be inflated.
    7. He lost the key to his mansion, so he needs a new place to live.
    8. He thinks that he can use MS Money to balance the budget.
    9. He feels that Perot just didn't throw enough money at it.
    10. He wants to make Windows '95 the official operating system of the USA.

    Ok, those look kind of dated...but still funny

    On the serious side, I wonder how many people with the power to see into the mysterious future, were tempted to e-mail the editor about a SERIOUS problem with this story!

    Transporter_ii
  • I’ve been saying for years that we need to stop electing millionaires.

    Careful what ya wish for, I suppose.

  • Prepare (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PortHaven (242123) <`saj' `at' `easternstorm.net'> on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:31PM (#17056306) Homepage
    For innumerous jokes about constantly having to reboot the government. And the need for constant government upgrades.

    Let's forget open-source software for any public activities.

    Er...uh...*cowers*

    On the flip side, special interest groups declare bankruptancy. Groups claim they became ineffective because when ever they tried to buy Bill Gates he declined expressing that he already had enough headaches trying to spend the billions he already has.
  • by Stormwatch (703920) <rodrigogirao@nosPAm.hotmail.com> on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:31PM (#17056320) Homepage
    ...but I wouldn't mind voting for Scott Adams!
  • a waste of materiel (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tverbeek (457094) * on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:31PM (#17056322) Homepage
    My main objection to a Gates presidency is that Bill can do far more good for the world as the head of a well-funded private foundation than he could possibly do as master of ceremonies and chief law enforcement officer of the United States. Now that he's stepping down as Borg Queen, he has an unprecedented opportunity to improve the quality of living for so much of the human population... why waste a man like that on a job where he'll have to negotiate with Congress, waste time overseeing dozens of secretaries, etc.
  • Thank you, Scott.
  • by antifoidulus (807088) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:35PM (#17056412) Homepage Journal
    Will there be a "Cowboy Neal" option on the ballot?
  • by Absolut187 (816431) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:44PM (#17056578) Homepage

    "there isn't anything wrong with this country that President Bill Gates couldn't cure.."


    Except, of course, the security and stability of its most popular computer operating system.
  • by Peter Trepan (572016) on Thursday November 30 2006, @06:03PM (#17056956)
    ...and extend it...
    • by McFortner (881162) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:43PM (#17056558)
      I have seen the future....

      President Gates was quoted as saying regarding the MicroSoft investigation, "Justice Department investigation? What Justice Department investigation?" MicroSoft stock prices climbed 200 points today when Wall Street heard the news.

      In related news, Steve Job's execution as a Enemy of the State is scheduled to go on as planned at 9pm EST. Live, pay-per-view coverage can be found on MSNBC.com.

      • Um.....

        No.

        Good government is reasonable and thinks and debates until it's time to do something, then goes out and does it. "Inefficiency" and "Debate" are two completely different things, and equating them is like equating "debating the war in Iraq" with "not supporting our troops..." They are two completely different things that look somewhat alike to the unaware observer. I guess the real problem with our government is the people it has come to represent. Let me put it this way:

        The seventh most visited site in the US is run by less than 50 people.

        If that isn't a small number of people doing something beneficial for an extremely large number, I don't know what is. That's what I want out of government - run the water, run the electricity, run the courts system so it's fair, provide a social safety net, create an armed force that can defend our interests at home as effectively as necessary as cheaply as possible, push the economy to a high rate of growth, etc. And do it with as small a portion of the population and the population's resources as possible. The way our government is run now is completely purpose-less and the majority of it is done out of either sheer habit or the self-interest of politicians.
      • by Lord Ender (156273) on Thursday November 30 2006, @05:51PM (#17056720) Homepage
        inefficient

        You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

        An economically-efficient government could provide the same social services while charging less tax.

        I think an ideal government would be slow to change laws and efficient with spending.