Googlers check out the geek in Obama, search for experience gap

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. -- White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) confronted his experience gap while meeting Wednesday with employees at Google headquarters.

Obama also headlined a series of high-dollar fund-raisers in northern California a day before Democrats meet for a debate in Las Vegas.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt tested the geek in Obama, asking him "the most efficient way to sort a million 32-bit integers." Obama, coming prepared, said, "I think the bubble sort would be the wrong way to go,'' a computer science reference to a sorting algorithm.

Google, one the fastest-growing and most highly valued U.S. companies is the embodiment of the American success story. Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page launched what became Google from a Stanford University dorm room.

Obama was asked by a Googler -- that's what employees are called -- what he was going to do to get past his experience gap. Polls show that one of the biggest problems Obama, 46, has with voters is his resume.

"Sergey and Larry did not have a lot of experience starting a Fortune 100 company," Obama said.

Obama framed being president in terms of being able to inspire, more than manage.

Obama used his Google visit to unveil his technology innovation agenda. If president, he would name a chief technology officer, guarantee every American broadband access, and make sure whatever is the next Google is a U.S. company.

A Googler asked Obama what he learned about how President Bill Clinton got elected, and Obama said "a lot" -- but his moment was gone and his was still to come.

When Clinton ran in 1992, he said, "'You know what, I am a different kind of Democrat and I am willing to do things in some new ways' and that was a powerful message for that moment," said Obama.

"The reason I am running and the reason I believe I am going to win is because we are in a different moment. So you can't just copy what Bill Clinton did, but you have to take the same approach."

To read Obama's technology proposals click www.barackobama.com.