It's hard to stand behind Michael Dell these days.

Shares of Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) have been slammed since his return, and now a vocal minority of shareholders voted against his board reelection.

I've seen this play out at Yahoo! and Disney (NYSE: DIS) in recent years. It rarely ends well for the helmsman.

However, the baseless rumor going around is that Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) Mark Hurd will be brought in to replace Michael Dell.

Folks, there is no way this is going to happen -- and it has nothing to do with the restrictions that will be placed on Dell to only hire homely contractors.

Too soon? Tough crowd.

I think Hurd is going to bounce back, and in a big way. This just isn't the right situation. Hurd is what a baseball fan would call a long middle reliever. When the starter messes up -- and Carly Fiorina gets sent to the showers early -- Hurd's the bullpen ace that will clean up a hairy situation.

Dell doesn't need a Hurd. Its margins are respectable given its specialty. Michael Dell knows how to cut costs when necessary, that's not the problem. No, what Dell needs is a closer.

It needs someone who can put the game away. It needs a visionary. It needs an idea person. It needs a CEO that isn't going to sleep through the netbook revolution, arrive late to the smartphone craze, or put out the Streak that's too big to be a phone and too small to be a tablet.

I was on CNBC this afternoon, talking about Dell, and many of the other analysts suggested that the company should try to take a page out of IBM (NYSE: IBM) playbook and become a bigger player in business services.

Sure, that makes sense. It's where thicker margins pitch their tents. Unfortunately, don't be surprised if Dell tries to hitchhike to IBM City but gets dropped off at Gateway Town instead. Dell clearly failed in trying to become the next Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) with its failed MP3 players and premium-priced stylish computers.

Dell isn't a bad company. It may not even be a broken company. The past few years have been miserable, but analysts do see revenue and earnings picking up over the next two years. Michael Dell just needs to hold on to the bucking bronco long enough to get there.

The one thing he doesn't have to do is look over his shoulder to see if Hurd is nearby. Heck, that would be an even dumber idea than the Streak.

Too soon? Oh, please people.