Revenge of the Nerds, White House edition: Techie choices for VP

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Now that Bill Gates no longer has to worry about running Microsoft, why not help run the country?

The Microsoft co-founder is mentioned by some in political circles as the ‘dream running mate’ for John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, according to the Politico. (No, President Bill Clinton isn’t laughing off the suggestion in the photo above. He’s just having fun with Gates during a conference in 2000.)

The Capitol Hill publication asked 14 political consultants, campaign staffers, fundraisers and historians to name ‘their most unconventional -- but reasonably viable’ vice presidential choices for McCain and Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee. Also making the list of eight long shots was Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of EBay and a leading McCain fundraiser. There were no tech celebrities among the suggestions for Obama, although Robert Rubin, the former treasury secretary who now is director of the executive committee at Citigroup, made the list.

Because of their public support and fund raising for McCain (their gender probably doesn’t hurt either), Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina have been mentioned as possible vice presidential choices by the Arizona senator, including in a story today by The Times’ Doyle McManus.

But Gates hasn’t gotten much love as a potential presidential running mate. Talk about campaign finance reform: The world’s third-richest man could help the McCain ticket obliterate Obama’s Internet-fueled fund-raising advantage. Joe Wilcox of Microsoft Watch speculated this month that the newly retired Gates would be ‘an obvious choice for somebody’s administration’ but stopped short of suggesting he be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

It got us to thinking: Who else in the tech world would liven up a presidential ticket?

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: a good choice for Obama to show that ...

... his administration would be tough on North Korea, Iran and just about everybody else. If only he could figure out how to handle his nemesis in the Web search wars, that pesky Google.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison: Unless Obama picks Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate, this could be the only way to bring a little of that Bill Clintoneque dot-com-boom swagger back to the White House.

Google co-founder and President Larry Page: If Google’s going to run the world one day, this would be a good stepping stone. His fellow co-founder and president, Sergey Brin, is ineligible for the presidency because he was born in Russia. Larry just makes the constitutional age cutoff, having turned 35 in March (sorry all you Facebook fans, Mark Zuckerberg won’t be old enough until 2019).

Let’s hear your nominations in the comments below.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Puzzanghera, a Times staff writer, covers tech and media policy from Washington, D.C.

Photo: Bill Gates, left, President Bill Clinton and World Bank President James Wolfensohn at the White House Conference on the New Economy in April 2000. Credit: Paul J. Richards / AFP