Check out this excerpt from the Real American Blog:

Would Americans even consider voting for someone who isn’t a politician? I mean Ross Perot gave it a shot several years ago and it didn’t go well… but then again he was a nobody to most of the U.S. population AND kind of a nutball honestly. That said, Bill Gates does have more name recognition than most politicians considering the race in 2008 and he can fund his own campaign so there’s not the ever present hint of lobbyist and special interest groups being the puppet master behind a campaign. Unfortunately I highly doubt Mr. Gates would want the job and I doubt even more that Americans would vote for him. People don’t trust successful businessmen for some reason and just the name “Microsoft” sends some people into fits about unfair business practices and monopoly tactics. He’s also an atheist and even though religion should have nothing to do with politics this would be a black mark against him.

In the past few days the “Bill Gates for President” message has reached Hundreds of Thousands of people, obviously more than we expected it to do in such a short time-span. Because of this tiger wave of attention we missed out on the organic growth stadium of our movement, something we can hopefully start catching up for right about now…

That’s right, we really are serious about this. To get our ideas out there we are looking for ten to fifteen adults who, even though we all know it’s a long shot to see Bill actually run for President, feel strongly about our ideas and are willing to contribute some time to the collective. Our small but enthusiastic team is proving to be a tiny bit too small, and with some extra (wo)manpower we’re sure we can do so much more…

Every four years pundits, radio talk show hosts and U.S. citizens beg for a presidential candidate who’s not a career politician. And every four years the two major parties nominate — you guessed it — career politicians! No true, non-political alternatives have the party backing, or, it seems, the ability to connect and gain our trust. I guess voters don’t mind career politicians after all.

Donald Trump is too full of himself (but Letterman would have great material), Ross Perot was too preachy and weird, and Arnold is too foreign (meaning he legally can’t run; not that I’m against Austrians).

Here’s a name that could overcome all these obstacles: Bill Gates. Not the old Bill Gates spouting technology, wearing ill-fitting clothes and crushing competitors for sport (though his company is doing this with relish and third parties are paying the price). No. I’m talking about the new Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Time for some polling! In the weeks to come we’ll be launching a series of polls in which we put a potential candidate for the 2008 election and Bill Gates in a head-to-head position. We realize we’re putting Bill up there without him even expressing any of his views on what his political choices would be, but the reason that’s not stopping us from starting these polls is simple: we believe in Bill’s rational choices and his ability to make the right decisions.

Senator John McCain of Arizona will be the first one to be tested against Gates. John McCain has emerged as the early front-runner for the Republican nomination. He stands for conservatism, or as he put it to the Washington Post, “My record is the same on all issues, which is that of a conservative Republican. Not a liberal Republican. Not a moderate Republican.” You can find more info on Senator McCain on the John McCain 2008, The Exploratory Committee website, Wikipedia or John McCain on the Issues.

We had quite a few e-mails during the weekend from people asking for bumper stickers, buttons and T-shirts to help us spread the word. We hesitated for a while but after e-mail number ten we decided to give it a go.

We’ve made a small CafePress.com store in which we’re currently selling some shirts, mugs, magnets and stickers. We’re not giving stuff away, but because we’re not in this for the money either (we have a long way to go to break-even ), we’re donating at least 10% of all the profits to HIV/AIDS charities, even if we’re still in the red. We’ll up the percentage at the point of break-even!

We’ve also made some free pdf templates people can use to print out their own posters and flyers. Thanks to Jeff Taylor for the great idea!