Once elected, Schmidt joined the Transition Economic Advisory Board and appeared next to Obama at his first postelection press conference.99 According to Politico, “The image alone of Schmidt standing elbow-to-elbow with Obama’s top economic thinkers was enough to send shivers up the spine of Google’s competitors. ‘This terrifies Microsoft,’ said a Democratic lobbyist familiar with the industry. ‘There’s a reason why people are scared to death of Google.’”100
