Because of Sinegal’s public support of Obama, the recent withdrawal from Costco warehouses nationwide of Dinesh D’Souza’s book America: Imagine a World Without Her, just before the release of the movie by the same title, was widely interpreted as a political move — the book and accompanying movie are very critical of the president. I spoke to current Costco CEO Craig Jelinek, who was so absorbed in the business of the company that he had been unaware of the movie prior to the resultant backlash. He readily admitted that those responsible for managing the limited book space in Costco warehouses should have been aware of the imminent release of the movie and retained the book in anticipation of a brisk stimulation of book sales, which had been sluggish…

In the case of Costco and the D’Souza book, because of Sinegal’s views, lack of awareness was interpreted by many conservative customers as political misconduct. Although he and I differ politically, he continues to be a huge financial supporter of the Carson Scholars Fund and many other educational endeavors. When he was CEO, he could not sleep at night if someone else offered a better value on a product. He cared deeply about how employees were treated, and he refused to accept a salary comparable to those of other CEOs in the industry. He also has nothing to do with Costco book sales, nor would he wish to at this point. We have much common ground and are friends, even though we often discuss political issues.