His comment was inevitable once Boeing moved its home offices to Chicago. Boeing is now a global entity with no more loyalty to Washington State than it does to building propeller driven planes for TWA. For that matter, I do nto even think Boeing has much reason to stay in the US. 
The move to Chicago makes the point … managing money is a lot more important than managing workers. The lazy B sure is not going to build airplanes in Rahm Emmanuel’s city! 
Boeing’s move make me wonder about the remaining industries but even more about the UW. This school gets very little of tis support from the State. Should we, that is the UW, contemplate a Seattle dependent on the whims of an economy that sells services and virtual stuff rather than the things folks build with their hands. Why should we be dependent on where Jeff Bezos want to live?
Should we privatize?
Should we move?
What are we worth?
Moving the UW ,, or whatever the new company university would be called to Columbia would have great advantages for the Huskies as well. Where Seattle has so few African Americans that the Huskies look, well … different from the rest of us, Columbia is 42.8% Black or African American,! They even have 4.2% Hispanics!
Columbia SC has other advantages. As a “right to work” state the new campus would have NO unions! Imagine how much more efficient we could be if the new private contractors could employ illegal aliens to teach Spanish!
By the way, the mascot at our new campus would be the “Fighting Cocks.” As I am aware of current UW rules on bad language, I will not comment on any double entendre that migh apply to the new campus athletic teams.
While thinking about the Athletic Department, once we privatize most of the issue about whether the AD is or is not a profit center will go away. I suspect we would also attract other industries to our new home! Could any state university consider replacing ROTC with a program to train professional security forces? I think the Athletic Department might find this a great major for athletes who can’t make it in the NFL! Imagine offering a combination of an athletic scholarship with job security at our branch company, Intercontinental Security!
I think the biggest challenge might be coming up with a name for the new university. Hmmm. I suggest 
Intercontinental University .. a great brand that could allow moving the headquarters to Hong Kong or Qatar is that made corporate sense!