Hillary@Microsoft

I think I may have just listened to a speech from the next President of the United States.

One nice thing about Microsoft's corporate clout is its ability to attract influential speakers to come speak on campus. Today, the Microsoft Political Action Committee, a bipartisan group that lobbies on Microsoft's behalf on issues relevant to our industry, invited Hillary Clinton to come speak with us. I only got told by a friend this morning when I arrived at work, although I got forewarning of sorts via an e-mail yesterday about "heightened security" in the area around my building (her talk was held in Building 33, where Microsoft receives all of its important guests).

I rocked up just after 9.30am, and the room was 90% full already! When Hillary finally came on to speak, she was greeted with thunderous applause (with a little extra from a small group of Wellesley alums). Then she spoke off-the-cuff (well, at least without notes) for a good 45 minutes on a wide variety of topics. She may have been labelled as a wooden speaker by some, but surely it's in large part because of the inevitable comparisons with her husband. I found her to be engaging and well-versed on many issues. I also couldn't help but compare her performance to those of Howard and Rudd in Sunday's debate. She was more polished, very deftly mixing putting forth her policy positions with some personal anecdotes and a few backhanders at the current administration.

Hillary's critics might accuse her of wanting to be something to everyone; she would respond by saying she wants to govern for everyone, something that she has done in New York state, approaching all voters even those who normally would not vote Democrat, on what she could do to help. Should she win the nomination, it will be interesting if she can turn around some of the swing states this way, and deflect or neutralize the personal attacks that are inevitably going to come her way. Whatever you might think of her or her policies, my lasting impression is that she's a very, very capable candidate and it would not surprise me at all if she becomes the next President of the United States.