
Mark Zuckerberg Hired Obama and Bush Campaign Managers - rosstex
https://qz.com/882475/facebook-fb-ceo-mark-zuckberg-hires-david-plouffe-and-ken-mehlman-to-the-chan-zuckerberg-initiative/
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vinhboy
I have a feeling a lot of people here are going to scoff at this news, because
they think politics should be left to someone "better".

We live in a country where people like Mitch McConnell, Jason Chaffetz, Jim
Inhofe, and Trump are political leaders.

At this point, anything is better. I hope more people in our community will
volunteer themselves to the work.

Heck, if I didn't have to worry about paying my mortgage, I would. I can't be
any worse than the integrity-less lizards running the show now.

~~~
nugget
> At this point, anything is better. I hope more people in our community will
> volunteer themselves to the work.

After watching the sheer amount of personal destruction leveled at Trump (a
relative political newcomer), what private citizen in their right mind would
want to run for office?

There's a reason professional politicians stick to soundbites and avoid the
public as much as possible: any unscripted exposure is a chance for the media
to demonize them and tear them down. And the public -- the same public that
claims to want ''ordinary folks'' to run for office -- gleefully pulls out the
torches and pitchforks every time.

Think about the worst skeletons you have in your closet and pretend that the
most savvy oppo-research / viral media minds are sitting in a room figuring
out how to spin each one into the most salacious, sort-of-but-not-really-true
headline possible. That's what I saw both Clinton and Trump deal with in the
last cycle. I am an eternal optimist and hope the system can be improved in
the future but for now I think the American people are getting just about the
level of politics they deserve.

~~~
Already__Taken
Case-in-point, see the BBC coverage in meltdown over the Labour leaders
nuanced view to immigration.

People crave targets and promises, It doesn't matter one bit about what is
achievable.

small example, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-
politics-38561501](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38561501)

~~~
crdoconnor
There was actually a petition to sack Laura Kuessenberg from the BBC because
of her Fox News-y approach to attacking Labour and their response was to cry
sexism/misogyny:

[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/10/bbc-laura-
kuen...](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/10/bbc-laura-kuenssberg-
jeremy-corbyn-petition)

Surprisingly it worked.

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woodruffw
I wonder if Zuckerberg is planning to capitalize on the fractured party
landscape. 2020 would be a prime year for a new ticket.

As far as I can tell, his politics don't fit cleanly into any of the four
(broad) ideological groups we see today (those being far and center
conservatives and liberals).

~~~
aaron-lebo
He doesn't have that clout.

He strikes me as a big money, big government guy, which isn't that different
from Bush or Obama. They also essentially all come from that Ivy League
background so they have some similar worldviews at least. What do you see
which suggests he is different?

What might he be running for? Representative seems too low and too political
for a guy of his stature. Senate? I think he's overplaying his hand if he
thinks at 35 he could run for any office higher than that and win with no
prior experience and not a ton of charisma.

~~~
ForHackernews
> He doesn't have that clout.

Theoretically, couldn't he just have his engineers tweak the Facebook
algorithm to make him President? Figure out how many swing state voters you
need, set their Facebook feeds to deliver positive news about Zuckerberg and
negative news about rivals.

I doubt it would even be ruled illegal in the current landscape. I'm sure the
media would raise a stink, but the voters you care about would never see those
scathing op-eds.

~~~
devoply
Shouldn't that be illegal. But yeah probably in America if you own the media
then you can have it say whatever you want.

I personally think Bill Gates should run, he'd be a much better President, and
much more likely to win.

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vanrysss
The current election showed us that a lot of people just gobble up what
they're fed on Facebook. Who better to take advantage of that than the owner?

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nodesocket
I immediately thought to myself, Mark is not old enough, you have to be 35.
Then I looked it up and to my surprise he is 32. I always thought he was in
his late twenties.

~~~
chatmasta
It definitely seems like a Zuckerberg thing to do, to run at the earliest
possible age.

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kome
The big brother candidate.

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orionblastar
I think he plans to run for office in 2020.

~~~
afinlayson
I suspect he'll get advice telling him to "put feelers out" in 2020 like Trump
did in 2000. It maybe 8-12 years before he can get the blue collar vote.

~~~
dragonwriter
Trump didn't put feelers out in 2000, he began campaigning for the Reform
Party nomination (a number of candidates were attracted, because they had
secured federal matching funds based on their 1996 performance) before
withdrawing (citing, at the time, a desire not to be associated with the other
Reform Party candidates, particularly David Duke, who in 2016 he would claim
to never have heard of before.)

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qwrusz
Are we sure this is for Zuckerberg himself? The visit 50 states makes me think
yes, but still I always thought Sheryl Sandberg would make the better
politician.

~~~
night815
What if it's for everyone instead of just one person. Perhaps Facebook wants
to build a better platform for all elected officials as a way to combat the
fake news outbreak.

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johnnydoe9
People started predicting this as soon as his comments about atheism became
news, now the tour and this. Okay.

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HugoDaniel
lets hope he uses stronger passwords than "dadada" by the time he runs for
prez

[0][http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/06/06/mark-
zucker...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/06/06/mark-zuckerbergs-
password-was-dadada-what-hope-do-the-rest-of-us/)

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koololdkool
Holy shit. He could do it. He will be 35 by 2020, so he really could be the
next president.

I'd vote for him a heartbeat. He's a young Bill Gates. He would do an amazing
job if he could rally the young and make internet voting a reality so people
actually participated in government.

Yes, yes, he would scare people about controlling the vote but then he would
employ cryptography experts that we would all agree have created a verifiable
system...He's technical and looks up to technical people, he would listen to
all of them and create unprecedented transparency.

As much as I'm not a fan personally I actually think something like Facebook
could fix our democracy. If...if..it was executed in a totally public and
transparent way and was a genuine revolution of the people ala Bernie.

We could have an American Social Network that included voting...it may be
somewhat expensive but everything could be audited 100 different ways in
public...public blockchains as auditing mechanism.

Reserve your username today!

[https://american.gov/join](https://american.gov/join)

