Home Depot Co-Founder: Obama Doesn’t Understand Small Businesses
Last Friday on Squawk Box, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus had some harsh criticism for the Obama administration. The man, who previously made a few headlines by implying that any retailer who doesn’t vote Republican should be, y’know, killed, explained how the folks in Washington just don’t get small businesses. He had some helpful suggestions though including President Obama disguising himself and walking amongst the people like a king in an old fairy tale or a reality show starring Timothy Geithner.
From CNBC:
“’My solution is that you take a guy like Timothy Geithner and put him in a new reality show. It’s called ‘Timothy Geithner Does Small Business’, something like [the porn movie] ‘Debbie Does Dallas’, and it ends up the same way,” said Marcus. ‘Basically, what they’re doing to small business is very similar in this case [to what ‘Debbie’ did to Dallas.]’
To play out his story, Marcus said Geithner would have to deal with the state, federal and local regulations that he contends stymie business, and then the public official may understand the challenges that small business people face.
Hyperbole aside, Marcus said the administration’s poor performance warrants the Democrats being voted out of office. He did not, however, call for Geithner to resign.”
On the Politics board over at Reddit, the users have been taking some offense at these comments, pointing out that Marcus might not understand small businesses that well. At the very least his company might not considering the time they lost a lawsuit for stealing a contractor’s invention and all the allegations that they forced employees to create fake damage claims and backcharges that totally screwed, you guessed it, small businesses. Whether or not those allegations are true, I’m mostly offended that Marcus completely misconstrued the plot of Debbie Does Dallas. Everyone who’s anyone knows that Debbie neither visits or actually “does” anyone from Dallas in that film. Or, at least, everyone who wrote a college thesis paper on pornography of the 1970s in college knows that (don’t ask, although I did get a great grade on that thing).
Still though, Marcus promises he understands small business owners because he “hangs around” with them (and, hoo boy, does he have a lot of stories to prove it). Besides, he may really be onto something with those ideas. The Obama one might be tough even though we’d all love to see him act out Jasmine’s story arc from Aladdin, but the Geithner reality show would be great! It’d be just like The Simple Life but with (hopefully) less revealing outfits. At the very least, Marcus has hit a gold mine with this political reality show idea. Who wouldn’t watch a Big Brother style “locked in a house” show with the likes of Basil Marceaux and Phil Davison as roommates? Throw in Steven Slater and you’ve got a ratings winner!
I mean, it couldn’t be any less dignified than Dancing with the Stars.
