Recently Fortune spoke at length with four business leaders (who were granted anonymity in order to speak freely) about their views on the upcoming election. Though the interviewees were mainly moderates who'd voted for nominees from both parties in the past, they all expressed disappointment in both Trump and Biden, and marveled that despite deep talent in both parties, our pre-election democratic process had saddled voters with two such poor choices. For that article, I asked principally about economic issues such as immigration, industrial and energy policy, and regulation.
This time, I quizzed the three titans whom I managed to reach at short notice a different question: How did the bullets fired at Donald Trump, and that killed two people in the audience on July 13, change the odds that either candidate, or a replacement for Biden, would prevail by reaching 270 electoral votes? As in the first piece, I assigned each interviewees the name of one of the presidents immortalized on Mount Rushmore. "George" (for Washington) is a top asset manager who's served on a number Fortune 500 boards, "Tom" (for Thomas Jefferson) is the former chief of a large industrial enterprise, and "Abe" (for Lincoln) is the current CEO of a leading investment firm catering to the retail trade. I couldn't reach the original "Ted" (for Theodore Roosevelt) in time, but by chance, another business legend who happened to be dining with George when I called, contributed his own pointed opinions from across the table. This fellow—who's replacing the former "Ted" and taking his the name—founded a private company that's one of America's largest in its field, and now serves as CEO of a second player in the industry.
