Microsoft's Bill Gates for President in 1996

00-00-0000
Commentator Stuart Cheifet gives his reasons for why he believes Microsoft leader Bill Gates would be a good candidate for president. He points out that Bill Gates already has world leadership status.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, Host: The Internet may be struggling with on-line democracy, but our commentator, Stuart Cheifet [sp], says the computer industry could provide us with an ideal candidate for president.

STUART CHEIFET, Commentator: In 1992, in the heat of the last presidential election, I had the occasion to introduce Bill Gates at a computer event. I had just returned from attending one of the presidential debates, watching Bush, Clinton and Perot go after each other, so national politics was on my mind. I jokingly introduced Gates as `the billionaire who wasn't running for president.' Everyone laughed, Bill shrugged shyly, and we moved on.

I've been thinking about that ever since, and after three years of watching the soap opera that's broadcast daily from the Beltway, I've started wondering about whether that was really a joke or not.

After all, no one seems too thrilled with the prospects for this year's presidential sweepstakes, and in a way Bill seems like Perot without all the weirdness. Gates is clearly a good businessman. He's had to meet a payroll. That's always good for politics. He is certainly a good manager and leader and innovator. He understands the superhighway stuff so even Vice President Gore would like him.

He is unquestionably a super-capitalist while at the same time running a company that is known for being tolerant and understanding of minority interests and alternative lifestyles. He's certainly known as a good negotiator. He doesn't need the money. He doesn't need the ego gratification. So, he would be running for the right reasons. And, face it, he is in a way the current leader of the free world anyhow, just by virtue of running Microsoft. Microsoft rules the world of computing. Computers rule the world. Ergo, Gates already has global leadership stature.

There could be all kinds of advantages. We would save a lot of money in current Justice Department investigations and antitrust lawyers. We could probably move very quickly to a totally electronic democracy in which we all vote by double clicking on a Congress-button in the upgrade to Windows 95, which would immediately tally our votes on some big super-voting-board in Washington. We could then eliminate Congress and save a lot of money and a lot of silliness.

And for Bill it makes sense, like, what's left to do? And he already lives in Washington. He just has to add the D.C. part. Republicans would be happy because he is obviously a business-oriented candidate, and Democrats would be happy because they could recycle their `I Like Bill' bumper stickers from 1992.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Stuart Cheifet is executive producer and host of The Computer Chronicles on Public Television.