“Somehow I don’t see Steve Jobs thinking what a great idea it would be to take an aggressive position on a highly politicized issue and thereby gratuitously piss off a significant segment of your customer base.”
He openly assisted Kerry, Gore and Obama in their presidential campaigns. Can you get any more highly politicized?
Yes, Steve Jobs, the individual, did just that, but he NEVER involved his position as CEO of Apple in those Political activities, nor did he put Apple's name on it. When pressed to do so by a Democratic activist he flatly refused saying that half of Apple's customers were Republicans and he was not about to alienate half of the company's customers by taking either side on issues.