How is Steve Ballmer like a White House contender? In the heat of the presidential primary season, it seems Microsoft has taken a few lessons from Clinton, Obama, McCain and Romney: Draw a contrast with your opponent and explain how you will prevail, but don’t mention them by name if you can help it.

You’ll never find the word “Google” in Microsoft’s press release or its letter to the Yahoo board, but the search engine and online advertising giant is implicitly ubiquitous:

• “Today this market is increasingly dominated by one player. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a competitive choice while better fulfilling the needs of customers and partners.”
• “The industry will be well served by having more than one strong player.” [Admitting there is only one now? Ouch.]
• “Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers.”

Not that naming or not naming Google will make much difference. In a highly unscientific poll based on a leading news search engine (ok, it was Google News), roughly 80 percent of coverage about the Microsoft-Yahoo offer mentioned Google in the first sentence.

Yahoo didn’t even have the Microsoft bid on its front page until about 10:00 am EST, some three hours after the news broke. Even then it was buried about 11 headlines below the story that Yahoo considered the most important of the day: “How scratching brings relief.”

UPDATE: Ballmer’s internal email to Microsoft employees, obtained by TechCrunch, doesn’t mention Google either, but states: “Together, we’ll create a company that is in a much better position to compete against an increasingly dominant player in this market”