RIP, Ross Perot

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

Just got a blip on the phone that Ross Perot passed this morning, at 89. He'd been diagnosed with leukemia about a year or so ago. Quite the character in several venues, he certainly played an interesting role in our recent history.

Rick C

 

[don44]

RIP

 

[LDM]

And the NAFTA "big sucking sound" was truly prophetic.

 

[Bull Barrel]

He would have been a great PotUS.

 

[blackhawknj]

He gave us Bill Clinton in 1992 and his "Reform Party" was pretty much a one man band.

 

[Snake45]

He was Trump before Trump was cool. :wink:

He was also a great friend of the US military, especially the POWs and MIAs and their families. Let it never be forgotten what he did in their behalf.

 

[Bull Barrel]

He gave us Bill Clinton in 1992 and his "Reform Party" was pretty much a one man band.

Incorrect and I will leave it at that.

 

[Pat-inCO]

He gave us Bill Clinton in 1992 ....

We can sure thank him for that {/sarcasm}

He sucked off enough voters that George HW was not re elected.
We are still suffering from the effects of slick willie. :roll:

 

[Bull Barrel]

Nope. Bush was such a bad candidate he didn't get enough votes.
Plus the voters are brainwashed to believe you can only vote d or R.

If the gop had allowed Perot to be the r candidate he would have mopped the floor with Willy.
But he was an outsider so everyone worked against him.

Conservative voters had their chance and blew it voting for the rino.

 

[kramden]

He gave us Bill Clinton in 1992 ....

We can sure thank him for that {/sarcasm}

He sucked off enough voters that George HW was not re elected.
We are still suffering from the effects of slick willie. :roll:

That's true. No ill will against Perot though he had every right to run. He was a good man. And Bill Clinton was a piece of crap.

 

[SAJohn]

An interesting story about Ross Perot that I did not see in his obit was that he started out as a salesman on commission working for IBM. He so excelled at his job that he wound up making more money per year than the CEO. When the CEO discovered this fact, he passed a rule that no employee could make more money than himself. Perot promptly left IBM to start his own company. 4 billion dollars later Perot could have bought and sold that CEO many times over.

John

p.s., I voted for him as did the majority of Kern County California residents.

 

[hittman]

He gave us Bill Clinton in 1992.

RIP Mr. Perot, a true patriot in many ways but just can't escape this legacy.

 

[gramps]

RIP I voted for him too! That is why I don’t vote for a third party candidate. Ross got 19% of the vote, sealing Clinton’s win.
gramps

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Perot received zero electoral votes.

Bush received 168.

Clinton received 370.

 

[Gator89]

Perot received zero electoral votes.

Bush received 168.

Clinton received 370.

A state by state breakdown of the popular vote is needed to see how Perot impacted the allocation of EC votes.

 

[ptypegreen]

Perot blew it when he dropped out saying the Bush family was sabotaging his daughter's wedding, or something like that. Never polled as well after that. He should have never dropped out, but having dropped out he should have stayed out.

 

[Cholo]

Ross Perot saying his famous line:

"If there's a fairer way, I'm all ears."

www.c-span.org/video/?c4006615/perot-ears



RIP...

 

[ronto]

He gave us Bill Clinton in 1992 and his "Reform Party" was pretty much a one man band.

I agree!

 

[CGDustDevil]

Nope. Bush was such a bad candidate he didn't get enough votes.

This is the reality of it. Overall Voter turnout was around 5% higher in 1992 than 1988, and 6% higher than the next election in 1996. One can only believe that the spike in voter interest in 1992 was due to a viable Independent challenge to the two parties and two weak candidates. Both 'sides' include supporters who lean independent in the right circumstance, and 1992 was a bit of a perfect storm in that regard BECAUSE there were two relatively limp mainstream candidates.

Because of the our Electoral system, it's simply not possible to project with any authority that Bush might have won or lost without doing an in-depth study of each of the States' races. Someone may have done that, but if they have, I haven't seen the results of it. I did some research years ago on the topic, and it certainly wasn't clear to me that Bush could have carried enough States to win the EC without the challenge from Perot.

The fact is that Perot drew votes away from BOTH parties, and Bush was NOT a strong candidate by any stretch. People like to cite 1988 as some kind of barometer about Bush's popularity with voters, but Michael Dukakis was about as weak a candidate as you'll ever find, and he STILL won 44% of the popular vote, and carried 10 States against Bush. (Democrats ALWAYS win DC and always will) If Bush was a strong candidate, he should have mopped the floor with Dukakis the way Reagan did with Mondale. Bush won soundly of course, but largely because of the strength of Reagan's administration, and a terrible opposition candidate in Dukakis. As it was, Dukakis was so bad that a faithless elector (Democrat) went for Bentsen for President, and voted Dukakis for VP.

Bottom line: We will simply never know with any certainty whether Bush 41 could have beaten Clinton in that '92 race without Perot's challenge.

 

[WestTex]

An interesting story about Ross Perot that I did not see in his obit was that he started out as a salesman on commission working for IBM. He so excelled at his job that he wound up making more money per year than the CEO. When the CEO discovered this fact, he passed a rule that no employee could make more money than himself. Perot promptly left IBM to start his own company. 4 billion dollars later Perot could have bought and sold that CEO many times over.

John

p.s., I voted for him as did the majority of Kern County California residents.

I read that Mr. Perot made his yearly sales goal in the first 2 weeks “on the road”.