The last few days have been a BMW-ride for us, and we’re spending quite some time reading and replying to e-mails from our visitors. We started working on a FAQ today and will hopefully be adding it to the website in the week to come.

One kind of e-mail deserves some special attention though. Loads of people send us e-mails about Microsoft products (most of the time people are referring to malfunctioning operating systems or browsers), with a closing paragraph saying: “that’s why it’s so obvious Bill Gates would make a shitty president. We call it the “Windows-Gates-Transfer (WGT)”-syndrome and it appears to be a serious problem amongst the members of certain anti-Microsoft subcultures. They’re all very passionate about their arguments (that’s a good thing, by the way), but I can’t say I really see their point. Here’s a very nice example of WGT:

If the quality of code M$ produces is anything like the quality of leadership BG would show as a president, you’ll see the USA limp even further backwards in the global technology pact. Look at the amount of time and money M$ put into vista, and compare that to Linux. Every distribution of Linux beats Vista in efficiency, less cost to produce, etc. It’s basically a cheaper, technologically better product.

I honestly don’t get it. Yes, I admit: I’m a Firefox user. Yes, this website is hosted on a server running a Linux distribution and yes, I like the Google search engine. I’m not the only one in our collective either (yes, we even have a Linux user on our team). Where’s the relevance? Was Ronald Reagan a bad president because he played in shitty movies like Tropic Zone or Girls on Probation? That just doesn’t make sense. You don’t have to like the Microsoft Corporation or the Microsoft products support our ideas.

We’re trying to get Bill to run for president simply because we’d like to see someone with his profile in the top spot, not because his browser has the best features. On a final note, this e-mail from Sutter sums it up nicely:

I think this is a great idea, as do all I’ve spoken to. Many of us have our reservations regarding Windows and Microsoft products, but we can see clearly that Bill could very well do a damn good job as President of the US. Many of us (here in Melbourne) find it irritating that the USA has such an influence on other nations in the world (including our very own), we’d certainly like to see someone who can think get voted in.

Alright, it’s great to see people taking their own initiatives to help spread our ideas. Thanks to Vail Gold there’s now a Facebook group dedicated to the “Bill Gates for President!” movement. Time for you to represent! (You can also put a bumper sticker on your Volvo too, hé!)

Anyway, I created a group on Facebook.com called “Bill Gates for President!” that any member of the site can join. I think that this group can help spread the popularity of the idea exponentially throughout the undergraduate students of colleges across the country to say the least. I made it because I read the Slashdot article about your site, and I was interested, and I saw that no one had created a Facebook group yet. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

l had some more questions, so here’s the info you need to join this group:

1) Go to facebook.com
2) Click on “register” in the top right corner
3) Fill out the registration form, which only requires Full name, email address, and birth date for personally identifiable data
4) Once you have an account and you log in, simply search in the search box at the upper left for “bill gates president” and it will show up in the search results
5) Click on the name or picture of the group in the search results to enter the group’s profile, or simply click on “Join Group” at the right of the search result
6) To join the group from the profile, click on the “Join Group” link at the right under the picture

Thanks for the initiative, Vail!

We’ve been busy. Thousands of visitors mean hundreds of e-mails, and they don’t read themselves… When, after about 3 hours of replying to e-mails you logg in to your wordpress admin panel to approve some comments you, see this kind of ranting, you feel like sharing (Click the thumbnail to see the full size digital picture) …

No, your comments weren’t deleted, my ranting friend. The 3 minutes it took for you to post 3 comments weren’t enough for us to approve them.

Oh by the way… We decided on deleting his comments anyway. They received more than enough attention with this blog entry if you ask us…

We receive so many “At first I was like, euh… But now that I think about it…”-remarks! It’s amazing to see that a lot of people are giving these ideas a chance, debating whether or not they could support Bill Gates as a presidential candidate. That’s great! We would like to thank all of you for sending in your own ideas, beliefs and thoughts.

Time for a short selection of comments from the BB’s (Bill-Believers):

In outsourcing to India, he made Microsoft more productive economically and more profitable. If he had these same goals as president, our country might be in much better shape. Now all we need is a legislative branch that doesn’t put party affiliation before logic. ~Joyce B.

That will be a change from people that are looking only for power and historical respect. Those are things that gates already has. No more of those religious values used in every sauce to hide their real agendas. If with gates we cut half the crap, we will live in a better world. ~Erik H.

I am seemingly the last person who would vote for Gates. I am a Christian and an avid Mac User. But because of his experience as a CEO of arguably the most powerful corporation in the world, and because he has taken his power and used it for good, I would certainly vote for Bill Gates as president. I think he would make a great president. And besides, its way past time that we had a nerd in the Oval Office. ~Dallas M.

I am a Republican, Born-Again, fundementalist Christian. I would vote for Bill Gates for any political office in a heart beat. Year’s ago I was one of the anti-MS, Linux geeks. When I started workign as a developer in 1996, the tools his company created made my life so much easier. I am now very pro-Bill. How could anyone deny his experience, based on his role, and helping America get back its monopoly on Democracy would rock *laughs*. ~David G.

I think what you’re doing is brilliant. If I were American I’d definitely vote for Gates. I only hope that he takes this seriously! ~Edward S.

Bill Gates for President? As a Brit who watches American politics with distane, I’d support this 100%. He has a track record of getting things done. Please consider opening the Gates of the White house. ~Graeme

A decade of political scandal is a very good thing for someone with vast non-political experience seeking to enter the political arena. After feeling betrayed and mislead by many insiders, there are those who will place more trust in someone who has yet to be corrupted by Washington. ~Steven S.

Bill has the kind of charisma that can save post-Bush US. ~ Bacabuda

Want to discuss this some more? Check out our discussion board.

By posting these remarks we received in our mailbox we just earned the right to add a provocative title. Anyway, some of the comments and e-mails we receive make interesting points against our case, most of them don’t. We’ve filtered out the “Bill Gates can’t be a good President because Microsoft is *xxx*” and the “Bill Gates is not a successful business man because Microsoft is *xxx*” crap, and decided feature these arguments:

This is an interesting idea, but completely unrealistic and a little idealistic. If Big Business’s influence in politics is bad, then the biggest man in Big Business who influences not only US politics, but world politics as well, should be just as bad. Politics is not Viral Marketing. ~Susan Adams

You’re suggesting to put the head of Microsoft, that needed the threat of HUGE fines from the EU government to abide by the laws. I’d not want any person who’s leading a company that operates like that anywhere near a position of power. It’s bad enough to see how badly M$ is organized and how restrictive they are. ~Stigu

But seriously folk, although I do like the fact that he’s not going to try to speed up the rapture, I don’t think he has a clue about people who are drastically different from himself. His philanthropy is great, but something makes me think he won’t understand (or has lost touch with) what us broke ass, underdogs are going through. I have had enough of seeing the same old rich, out of touch, White male presidents already, so let’s at least consider thinking outside of the power paradigm for once. ~Vargusvictor

There are many other more respected and worthy people out there, really. ~Steed K

He doesn’t need to be swayed by big business representatives; he IS a big business representative. His beliefs on issues like DRM and IP are clear, and run directly counter to those of many others in the various technology industries. ~Beren

As for Gates: My only concern is loyalty. Do you think he would be more loyal to our country or to businesses like Microsoft. The Gates foundation suggests he might do the right thing, and probably would, but loyalty could still be a concern. Also what party can he run under? The democrats and republicans would never take him, so it would have to third party. Would people still vote for him or would it be seen as a wasted vote? ~Jim

Being rational is good, but a President needs to inspire, too. Jimmy Carter is a fairly rational guy and he gave the country “malaise.” Ronald Reagan was not the most rational guy and he gave us “morning in America.” On the being unselfish point, again there is the Jimmy Carter comparison, great humanitarian, not so good President. And as for management, being President is a lot different than being head honcho at Microsoft. As President, you need to be able to work with Congress and (to a lesser extent) the Supreme Court as fellow powers in the land. When is the last time Bill Gates had to share power with anyone? ~JQ

There were many more arguments for the no-camp, and we’ll surely zoom in on some more of them in the next few days. Until then, feel free to comment on these views by using either the comment system or our discussion board.