Bill Gates for Commerce Secretary
So we tried a Democrat, we tried a Republican, how about we try a businessman to run the Commerce Department and see what he can do with an $8 billion+ budget to help turn around the business of America.
I nominate Bill Gates to be the next Secretary of Commerce and I base my nomination on three things.
First, he is a rags to riches, start-up businessman who clearly has an understanding of not only big business but small business and most importantly, modern business. He is best in class and it's been since JFK's time that we took the best in American business and brought them to Washington. In fact, I was looking at the Department of Commerce's web site (needs help Bill) and found these three goals for the Department.
1. Build for the future and promote U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace, by strengthening and safeguarding the nation's economic infrastructure;
2. Keep America competitive with cutting-edge science and technology and an unrivaled information base; and,3. Provide effective management and stewardship of our nation's resources and assets to ensure sustainable economic opportunities.
Now I know and like Bill Richardson (I worked as the new media consultant to his Presidential Campaign) and I've met Judd Gregg, but I can't see how either man could really know much at all about #1 or #2 and only Richardson was solid on #3.
Bill Gates working on US competitiveness? Sounds good to me. Cutting-edge science and technology? I mean, this is right up his alley and having lived in Seattle all those years and with his work through the Gates Foundation, I'd say he's pretty solid on all three parts of the Department's mission.
The second reason I nominate Gates is that he clearly understands the power of building a solid team, holding them accountable and letting them shine. He understands job creation, business creation and wealth creation, because he has actually done it. One of the great under-reported stories, in my opinion, in American business has been the smooth transition of power at Microsoft from the Gates era to the Ballmer era. That's smart, strategic and no ego involved (compare with the question of who will lead Apple next? your guess is as good as mine.)
Finally I nominate Bill Gates because of how who he is as a person. He understands the greater role that business and those who succeed must play in world. He has spoken for the power of creative capitalism and, of course, he funded the Gates Foundation with his wife Melinda. A Gates Commerce Department would lead a revitalization of American business, and at the same time, it would forever change American business for the better.
One other thought.
On one hand we have the geniuses on the Hill. Men and women who have no idea what happened to all of those $2,000 checks for their campaign coffers but are willing to do anything to get them back. They are going to spend $700 billion in an effort to do so.
On the other, I got Bill Gates at the Commerce Department, with some intelligence and $8 billion. I can tell you exactly who I'll bet will do more to turn around this country.
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The president did'nt cose the right republican he should've chosen arnold the govenator for commerce secratery
SURE! Pick a guy who was the leader of a company CONVICTED of anti-trust violations only 10 years ago.
NOT!
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Gates is a monopolist. Treasury is exactly the wrong place for him.
I agree that a highly successful businessman should run the commerce department instead of politician. Politicians are usually put in this position because the Commerce department runs the census and therefore helps remake political districts and realities for a decade. This is the reason Gregg backed out after Rahm announced he would be running the census.
However, despite his competency, Bill Gates moved his operation to Ireland. I have a problem with the greed of a man who is the richest in the world, yet sells out his countries economic and technological future for more money.
Someone like Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini is a better fit for me. Still a brilliant mind, but he's shown his loyalties by announcing a $7 billion investment in American manufacturing.
"As a global company, we have made a conscious decision to expand these factories here because we believe that investing in the future of American discovery isn't just the right thing to do," Otellini said, "it is an essential business decision if we want the United States to continue to be the engine of new ideas and technical leadership."
That's the kind of leadership the U.S. needs.
Um. Bill Gates is a nerd who got rich off other people's ideas and marketed them into a mega monopoly.
He's not a financial genius. He rode a wave with great marketing and a ruthless darwinian approach to the competition.
Ok, maybe he'd be a good Commerce Secretary.
Bill Gates should live amid Third World filth for a while and get swarmed by toxic mosquitoes instead of unleashing bloodsuckers during a speech to put on a show. I promise you he’ll change his rhetoric and get really serious about improving health in the world.
His foundation is the most suitable milieu for him to leave a lasting legacy. My only point is that the enormity of the global health crisis requires more than one Bill Gates to even make a dent on, and letting bugs out of a bottle in a crowd isn’t the smartest way to draw attention to it. Appointing him Commerce secretary is the dumbest.
I never understood the fascination behind working in washington. Honestly !!
Imagine yourself as a CEO. You have a few billions in the bank (if not hundreds of millions). You are running a big corporation. You are the king (with some restrictions).
WHY IN THE HELL WOULD YOU WANT TO RUN FOR PUBLIC OFFICE ? From where i come, public office is for people who couldnt hack it anywhere.
but then, we see ceo's running for public office (or try to aka Meg whitman, carly fiorina, all the treasury secys of last few decades )etc.
beats me. !!
too bad those chicks you listed ruined their companies, so maybe they couldnt hack it lol
First thing he'd do is outsource the government - which actually might be a good thing
James, I think Bill Gates has proven himself to be the 800lb Gorilla you want throwing its weight around outside of government constraint ... he seems to be having positive impact in his current role.
I threw out an obscure name for Commerce Secretary before and, since the position is STILL open, I think I will repeat myself again.
Gilman Louie ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilman_Louie
I knew Gilman from High School and remember him designing Star Trek battle games on hex paper during the dice rolling era of gaming ... fast forward a decade or so and his game company - Spectrum Holobyte - was producing computer Star Trek games utilizing the actual Star Trek actors as voice talent. I mean in the area of producing a product that is a definite success story.
Oh, his company also licenced the game "Tetris" from a pair of Soviet Developers and brought it to market ... some readers might have come across that obscure game at some point.
Before anyone dismisses the computer games industry it is a multibillion dollar part of the economy. So to be a success at that is a success in business.
Of course, later on, Gilman went on to set up the company In-Q-Tel for the CIA to provide venture capital to emerging silicon valley technologies.
So, at any rate, Gilman is a bright, hardworking, accomplished guy who knows Business from the bottom up ... If I were President Obama I would give him a call ...
Bill Gates is the 21st Century equivalent of the old robber barons. The only thing you could be sure of with Gates is the continued off shoring of American jobs and his support of predatory capitalism.
Sounds like jealousy to me.
Bill is not rags to riches, more like RICHES to RICHER...His grandmother lived on the edge of BroadMoor CC and his father is quite an excellent Lawyer.. and i do believe this mother was instrumental in the microsoft startup, when IBM chose to divest software. in its anti-trust settlement..
Read FREE LUNCH - this man is definitely for the HAVE MORES like his BFF Bush...
I understand the theory behind this idea, and as far as it goes the theory is somewhat sound. It has some major flaws though.
First and foremost, part of the Commerce department's job is enforcing corporate regulations (including intellectual property rights) and anti-trust law. Bill Gates has spent his career trying to find every legal loophole around the latter, and while that could mean he knows the tricks corporate crooks might use to undermine the competition it also means he may not have the appropriate opposition to corporate monopolies to be a rigorous regulator of corporate misconduct. He has clearly displayed no respect for patents or copyrights, as if it weren't for copyright and patent infringement (Windows, DOS) he would never have stepped up from writing programs in his garage to selling the operating systems for most of the world's computers.
Fox. Chicken Coop. Not always a good thing.
Swell, then every US industry will become a monopoly churning out inferior product. I'd rather see Bill in charge of warrantless wiretapping. It's sure to crash, and the 4th Amendment will be saved.
Best post on here. Bravo!
LOL LOL LOL!
Oh, please!!! Bill Gates made his money by selling (i.e., strong-arming companies into buying his) inferior software products (MS Word is nothing more than a bunch of macros strung together), and forcing out superior products (like WordPerfect, a full-featured, real-live word-processor).
Of course, I suppose anyone can make a fortune selling a great product (as long their competition does not use unethical tactics), but it takes real genius to sell out and out crap.
Yes, he gives a lot of money away. But considering how he got it in the first place, I think it's a matter of balancing some karma.
Sorry. Now... if you wanted to suggest his father, Gates, Sr., or Warren Buffett, I'd have a completely different reaction.
My feelings exactly. He would be just a new face to the current mindset.
I put it that even George Soros would be great ... how about Magic Johnson or Brenda Barnes ?
How about getting rid of Congress with people who have actually balanced accounting sheets? You know, people who have actually run businesses. Very few in Congress have ever had to balance anything and they are leading us? Yikes, gives me shivers.
Gates to me has too many conflicts of interest. I nominate Robert Redford.
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