Nixon also didn’t do all of the legwork behind going to China. But he was the person seen making the deal.

But as far as Apple, who do you think was more effective? A random CEO who was at Apple for less than 100 days talking to random people at Microsoft or Jobs being able to call up Gates directly - someone who he worked with for both the Apple // plus (AppleSoft Basic was written by Microsoft) and with the introduction of the Mac - Gates was on stage at the introduction?

Amelio was at Apple for over a year; his memoir about it was titled, "On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple". One of his claims was that the Microsoft thing was already a done deal by the time he left. The only "Nixon" thing about it was how Jobs could (just barely) get away with standing on the stage at Macworld with Bill Gates ominously looming over everyone like Big Brother.

Fair enough (100 vs 500). But by your own admission, the analogy still holds. While Jobs could “just barely” get away with it, can you imagine Amelio trying to get away with it at all among the few at the time remaining Apple faithful?