by Frank James
Sen. Barack Obama met with the Boston Globe’s editorial board today and offered an unusual answer to that nagging question about his lack of big-time management experience.
According to a posting on the Globe’s “Political Intelligence” blog by Foon Rhee, the paper’s deputy political editor, Obama likened himself to a $100 million high-tech start up taking on what the called the “Microsoft of Democratic politics,” aka Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign and doing so with great success.
That’s a fascinating metaphor. He’s the nimble start-up with the big new idea backed by venture capital money. She’s the entrenched and dominant market leader with the monopolistic tendencies who presumably uses her power to stifle the competition.
Of course, this is a metaphor that cuts both ways. The Clinton people, for instance, could run with it and accuse him of peddling vaporware like so many dotcoms of the late 1990s Internet bubble.
Here’s a link to the Globe posting.