To Hell w/ Warren Buffet

[Peter_Puget]

Link

[JoshK]

Wow! Billionaires supporting Bush, ya don't say!

 

"I would say the conundrum is that for all people with net worths in excess of $100 million to do well in the country, American businesses have to prosper again," said cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw.

[badvoodoo]

"I would say the conundrum is that for all people with net worths in excess of $100 million to do well in the country, American businesses have to prosper again," said cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw.

 

Call me crazy, but wouldn't the fact that they already HAVE $100 million mean they're ALREADY doing well?

[foraker]

Don't go injecting logic and common sense into this....

[JoshK]

"I would say the conundrum is that for all people with net worths in excess of $100 million to do well in the country, American businesses have to prosper again," said cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw.

 

Call me crazy, but wouldn't the fact that they already HAVE $100 million mean they're ALREADY doing well?

 

 

HAHA...sorry, I should have pointed out that I *changed* the quote to what Mr. McCaw really meant. It originally said something like for all people to do well his huge business had to do well or something like that.

 

What is really sad is folks like Bill Gates are now supporting Bush. I remember reading some stuff a few years back about how he actually voted with his brain and not his pocketbook and supported liberal causes. It's sad to see he has now put the anti-trust suit and money above all else.

[Thinker]

Just in case someone chooses not to go thru the hassle of registering to read the article, it does NOT say Buffet contributed to the Bush campaign. W Buffet is probably one of the sanest and most level-headed financial advisors a good presidential (or governor) candidate could choose.

 

************************************

High-tech executives give financial backing to Bush

 

By David Postman

Seattle Times chief political reporter

 

High-tech executives from Texas to Redmond, including at least two billionaires, converged here last night to endorse George Bush's re-election, putting an official touch on the Bush campaign's dominance in the race for the industry's campaign contributions.

 

The prominent high-tech backers for the president present something of a culture clash in Seattle, the largest and most liberal city in a state that for 20 years has voted for Democratic candidates for president.

 

Local and national technology entrepreneurs and executives said Bush's policies would be better for their businesses — and therefore the country — than what Democrat John Kerry proposes.

 

"I would say the conundrum is that for everyone to do well in the country, American businesses have to prosper again," said cellphone pioneer Craig McCaw.

 

The Bush backers said they support the president for his stands on education, setting limits on lawsuits, visas for foreign workers and free trade. Former Microsoft executive Bob Herbold said Bush was the "spiritual force" behind a tax credit that has spurred research and development. Peter Neupert, chairman of Drugstore.com, said he supports Bush's decision to back electronic access to consumer health records.

 

Dell Computers founder Michael Dell was scheduled to attend but was stuck in traffic and missed the endorsement announcement. He was expected along with the others for a $250-a-person fund-raiser of Bush "Mavericks," the campaign's organization for donors under 40.

 

Through the end of March, employees of computer and Internet-related companies had given $1.4 million to Bush and $779,000 to Kerry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. The ratio is similar to 2000, when Bush collected $1.2 million from the industry, about double what Democrat Al Gore received.

 

Gore cultivated technology credentials, from touting his role in development of the Internet to wearing a PalmPilot on his belt.

 

"I think there was a greater sensitivity to technology in the Clinton-Gore administration than I would see in a Kerry administration," McCaw said in an interview.

 

"That's no denigration of John Kerry. He's a fine man, but I don't think he has that sensitivity to what has driven the country in the global economy."

 

 

 

 

Herbold, a longtime Republican activist whose wife, Pat Herbold, chairs the King County GOP, said the tech industry has begun to lean more Republican over the past five or six years. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was swayed four years ago when his company was under attack by the Justice Department of Democrat Bill Clinton, Herbold said.

 

"It became clear in the presidential election of 2000 that the company as well as the industry would be better off with a free marketplace, and that's what caused him (Gates) to come out strongly in favor of George W. Bush," Herbold said.

 

All Gates wanted to do was operate in a free-enterprise system, and "there's no party that supports the free-enterprise system like the Republican Party," Herbold said.

 

Gates has donated to Bush's re-election. The company's political-action committee has not contributed to either of the candidates.

 

Microsoft group vice president Jeff Raikes will co-host a fund-raiser for Kerry in Seattle next week along with other Democratic-leaning high-tech executives.

 

"We have employees supporting both the president's re-election campaign and Sen. Kerry's presidential campaign," said Microsoft spokeswoman Ginny Terzano.

 

"Like many companies in the technology industry, Microsoft has a politically active employee base that is diverse in its political beliefs and takes part in politics on an entirely voluntary basis."

 

Top executives of Google, E-Loan and Yahoo have endorsed Kerry. Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks, has given close to $1 million to independent liberal political groups dedicated to defeating Bush this year.

 

Software entrepreneur Paul Brainerd, a Kerry supporter, said there is a natural political split in the technology industry.

 

"There's a strong Democratic attraction to many of the people in high-tech at lower levels," said Brainerd, the retired founder of Aldus. "Obviously, their bosses may have a different perspective given the objectives they're trying to achieve with the current administration."

 

Drugstore.com's Neupert agreed there has been a change as executives have matured along with their companies.

 

"I think that it's that natural conservatism of people as they become more responsible and see more of their mistakes," he said. "They're less idealistic and don't think, 'Oh, government can fix everything.' "

 

McCaw gave a defense last night of outsourcing, the controversial practice of U.S. companies sending jobs overseas.

 

He said jobs have gone to India, China and other countries because "technology has created an opportunity for others to participate in what we created."

 

"There is a little bit of discomfort with the spreading of this prosperity," he said.

 

To McCaw, outsourcing shows the success of U.S. technology.

 

"We can close our borders, but then our ideas will not dominate," he said.

 

The executives who appeared last night at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel and Towers were billed as "Innovators for Bush-Cheney," an echo of a favorite Bush word for his approach to technology.

 

From the early days of his 2000 campaign, Bush signaled his skepticism with the federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft when he said he stood "on the side of innovation, not litigation," and his supporters made clear they expected him to drop the case if elected. In his first year in office, the government agreed to settle the case with Microsoft.

 

McCaw said Bush's inclination for less government involvement in business is key to his support for the president.

 

McCaw and Kerry are neighbors in their vacation homes in Idaho, and McCaw says "he's certainly a good man."

 

"As much as I respect him, I have a very different view of government's role in allowing people to innovate and make their way in the world, and frankly, in the information and telecom industry, he is more of a status-quo guy than an innovator."

[JoshK]

No, Warren Buffet is a good man, and one of the few who does vote with his mind and heart and not pocketbook. He is a billionaire and supports liberal causes.

 

The fact that PP said to hell with him is a good indication that he is on the side of the just.

[Ratboy]

"I think that it's that natural conservatism of people as they become more responsible and see more of their mistakes," he said. "They're less idealistic and don't think, 'Oh, government can fix everything.' "

 

Those naive young liberals will grow up and become conservatives. No condesention there at all.

 

Give me a conservative who cares as much about the environment as he does about how much more money he can make and doesn't think the federal goverment is a way to enforce his religious beliefs, and I might vote for him.

[catbirdseat]

"All Gates wanted to do was operate in a free-enterprise system, and 'there's no party that supports the free-enterprise system like the Republican Party,' Herbold said. "

 

Translation: Freedom from complying with Anti-Trust Laws.

[graupel]

"As much as I respect him, I have a very different view of government's role in allowing people to innovate and make their way in the world, and frankly, in the information and telecom industry, he is more of a status-quo guy than an innovator."

 

I guess "innovation" comes in the form of Michael Powell dismantling concerns about anti-trust issues with such things as media consolidation.