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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: t2 who wrote (25581)	7/6/1999 9:57:00 PM
From: RTev	Respond to of 74651

Obviously, they would be supporting candidates from the political 'right' this time even if they agree with the 'left' politicians on most issues. The article does point out, however, that even some senior Microsoft executives remain committed to Democratic candidates -- even the insufferable Gore. But I suspect you're right that the overall effect of the suit has been to push politics there at least slightly more to the right. (And since it's located in a mostly conservative suburb, that's not always so difficult.) It will be interesting to hear Bush's speeches while he's here. As the article points out, Jim Barksdale was an early and generous backer of the Bush campaign, so he'll have to be very careful. But, like Clinton, Bush seems to be a master of the kind of politics that allows one to make a speech without really saying anything, so I'm confident that he'll be able to please the group around him in Redmond. I suspect that those still undecided will look more at the underlying ideology of the party and therefore find greater comfort with the Republicans. After all, even though Clinton was able to gain significant support from high-tech businessmen (mostly men) in the '94 campaign, including support from Redmond, he wasn't able to prevent this suit from being filed even though he spoke out against it early in the process. The '95 consent decree that was so favorable to Microsoft seems to have been partly a politically brokered deal, but it became so unpopular in many corners that Clinton had to make the appointments (like Klein replacing Bingaman) and cede the antitrust ideological issue to a more left-leaning wing of the Democratic party. And is there a movement against Washington companies? I doubt it. Boeing is always being investigated for one thing or another. It seems to be in the nature of that business. Another investigation would be just par for the course.