Obama Looking To Symantec CEO For Commerce

patentpundit writes "Word has started to circulate that President Barack Obama may be close to appointing John W. Thompson, the outgoing chief executive of network security firm Symantec Corp., to be the next Secretary of Commerce. According to the LA Times, over the last several days Thompson has spoken on the telephone and met with key senators, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a member of the commerce committee that would hold confirmation hearings for any appointed Secretary of Commerce, is 'extremely supportive and hopeful he'll be the nominee.' The appointment of Thompson to head the Department of Commerce would be an exceptionally interesting choice given that only days ago President Obama asked Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to lead his open source charge and conduct a study and report back regarding the feasibility of the US government forgoing proprietary software and moving toward open source software solutions."

Comments

Oh great-

[FredFredrickson]

The first thing he'll do is Root the country- for our own protection. We won't be able to do anything once he's in. He'll screw everything up, and won't leave when we ask him to. We'll need to find a special force of people to go in and remove him manually.

Worst of all, he won't even fix any problems while he's there, and we'll end up calling his competitors to fix the problem later.

Re:Oh great-

[Jedi Alec]

We won't be able to do anything once he's in. He'll screw everything up, and won't leave when we ask him to. We'll need to find a special force of people to go in and remove him manually.

Actually he might be a blessing in disguise. After 4 years of this guy, the only hope for the USA will be repartitioning the country and then a swift reinstall of the operating system. Looks like the hardcore liberalists will get their wishes after all ;-)

Re:Oh great-

[Ethanol-fueled]

...and who's to say that he won't be productive while in office! I'm looking forward to his hourly TV and radio address broadcast over all channels:

John W. Thompson: "Hi, I'm interrupting your regularly scheduled programming to let you know that your commerce is safe."
average American: "&*%^&$&* how do I turn this damn thing off?!"
John W. Thompson: "YOUR COMMERCE is SAFE, DAMMIT!"
average American: "^$%^#$*%%"

Re:Oh great-

[Gilmoure]

I like parties. I like to get drunk and take my pants off. Maybe start a fire or go yell at the dolphins at Sea World.

feature creep

[gandhi_2]

Obama's administration, feature creep, and bloat. Just like Symantic.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Symmantec out for the count

[Anonymous Coward]

this could prevent Symmantec from providing any contracts to the white house for 2 years

I don't like Symantec either, but if this is Obama's attempt to keep NAV off his white house PC it's a bit extreme.

Re:Other industry associations

[morgan_greywolf]

Thompson had a career at ... Seagate Technology.

OMFG! Nobody reboot ANYTHING at the Dept. of Commerce!

Whew!!

[erroneus]

For a second there, I read "Jack Thompson"

Re:It'll be news when he asks Stallman to work

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

No! It will be the start of The Révolution!

Re:It'll be news when he asks Stallman to work

[jo_ham]

Isn't it called Gnupocalypse?

Re:Guilty of supplying Parasitic bloatware

[FlopEJoe]

Sounds perfect for a government official!

Re:It'll be news when he asks Stallman to work

[Anonymous Coward]

Start now; run with the hurd!

Re:It'll be news when he asks Stallman to work

[Gilmoure]

Homer: "Why do you look like Caesar Romero?

Hallucination: "Because you do not know what Caesar Chavez looks like."

Re:Guilty of supplying Parasitic bloatware

[couchslug]

"What can we now expect?"

A Department of Commerce that adds positions throughout government which affect essential services and are difficult to remove without system damage?

Of course...

[zullnero]

You all could be thankful that it isn't someone who believes the Internet is a set of tubes, which you cannot dump large objects on, as you could the bed of a flatbed truck.

Re:It'll be news when he asks Stallman to work

[operagost]

Excuse me, I belive you mean GNU/Apocalyse.

- RMS

New Policy

[Stormy Dragon]

Going forward, taxes will now be referred to as a Yearly Government Subscription Fee.

Re:It'll be news when he asks Stallman to work

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, it will be the GNU World Order.

Re:One of the worst proprietary vendors...

[Ogive17]

Having been an engineer at Symantec for 5 1/2 years, I can tell you that what they suffer from is the inability to build new products themselves, or a management team that refuses to try (you choose).

So what you're saying is we're going to have to buy Canada in order to fix health care?