Ross Perot was the first man that I ever voted for President, and almost 16 years later I'm still proud to say that. Heck, I still have the "Ross for Boss in '92" button that I had made at a crafts fair at our high school, along with some "Perot for President" yard signs and bumper stickers from when I volunteered for his Rockingham County campaign. Yeah I've come to disagree with him on some things over the years (so far as I know he still backs abortion "rights") but other than Ron Paul, I don't know if we've ever had anyone run for President in the past 20 years who had Perot's grasp of fiscal responsibility. If Perot had any flaws regarding his bid for office, I've come to believe that they were that (a) he started as an outsider who tried to play by the rules of the party too much, and (b) some of his ideas needed a few more years before they could be appreciated. The "electronic town hall" that Perot loved to talk about: well, isn't that what blogging and YouTube have turned into? Perot's campaign in 1992 - quirks and all - was a thing of both wonder and madness. Wonder at the inertia that came together to try to get him elected, and madness that for all the frustration, this country's mindset is still locked into the status quo.
If you were around then, you'll no doubt remember those famous "infomercials" that Perot ran simultaneously across most of the networks, where he'd look into the camera while showing charts that depicted the state of the economy, while using down-home lingo and cornpone humor to get his point across: "This deficit's like the crazy aunt the family keeps in the basement. Everyone knows she's there but nobody wants to talk about her." Well, the man himself has just launched Perot Charts (at perotcharts.com) and he's bringing his flip charts into Web 2.0's realm.
Have to wonder what this country would have been like had he won the election that year. Would it have been any worse than what we've had from sixteen years of Bill Clinton and then George W. Bush? I doubt it.
If you were around then, you'll no doubt remember those famous "infomercials" that Perot ran simultaneously across most of the networks, where he'd look into the camera while showing charts that depicted the state of the economy, while using down-home lingo and cornpone humor to get his point across: "This deficit's like the crazy aunt the family keeps in the basement. Everyone knows she's there but nobody wants to talk about her." Well, the man himself has just launched Perot Charts (at perotcharts.com) and he's bringing his flip charts into Web 2.0's realm.
2 comments:
He was so incredibly right about NAFTA. Too bad that NAFTA not only killed what was left of our manufacturing base, but Bush has moved us swiftly towards the North American Union and the Amero.
I predict that Obama or McCain (whichever stooge is elected) will be the last president of the US as we are absorbed into the regional NAU.
Question is who gets to be head of this new regional entity? Hilary, Bush or some other stooge?
A friend made an interesting comment: that Perot's charts today make George W. Bush look like an even *bigger* disaster for America than Perot's charts in 1992 made Bush Sr. out to be.
And Perot was definitely right about NAFTA. That was the one issue that more than any other began my disillusionment with status quo politics.
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