We used to joke at Microsoft in the twilight of the 20th century at the height of the dot com bubble and amidst the DoJ proceedings that things had gotten “a little Nixon White House” in terms of tumult and the disconnect with the outside world.
Evidently now the Nixon White House isn’t a joke but rather a source of inspiration for the Windows marketing team:
“The quiet majority of million and millions of Windows Vista users out there are going to have a great experience.”
One wonders if this new “silent majority” is quiet because they’re still waiting for their Vista PCs to boot? (Disclaimer: I am a Vista user who simply tries never to hibernate or reboot). What next, a secret plan to end the war over Yahoo? Not sure I’d be taking pages out of the Nixon playbook. It is a short leap to midnight massacres, secret bombing campaigns, dirty tricks, unexplained gaps in the record, wage and price controls and “you won’t have… to kick around any more” protestations.
I’ll be watching closely for signs of other presidential inspiration, especially the Van Buren administration, but I really just wanted an excuse to post the picture above.