Posted on 01/17/2008 7:33:22 AM PST by rface
The phone rang and it was Ross Perot, who hasn't given an interview in years. Perot, who won 19 percent of the vote in the 1992 presidential election, making him one of the strongest third-party candidates in American history, got straight to the point.
"Remember what you wrote about John McCain in the March 13, 2000, NEWSWEEK?"
"Sure," I lied.
"When McCain called Perot 'nuttier than a fruitcake'?"
The Texas billionaire, now 77, still has some scores to settle from the Vietnam era, and his timing is exquisite. Just days before the South Carolina GOP primary, he wants me to know that McCain "is the classic opportunist--he's always reaching for attention and glory. Other POWs won't even sit at the same table with him."
Mark Salter, McCain's longtime top aide, says the Arizona senator has plenty of veteran support and many close friendships among other former POWs.
The Perot-McCain relationship goes back to McCain's five and a half years of captivity in Hanoi. When McCain's then-wife Carol was in a serious car accident, McCain's mother called Perot for help. "She asked me to send my people to Philadelphia to take care of the family," Perot says. Afterwards, McCain was grateful. "We loved him [Perot] for it," McCain told me in 2000.
Perot doesn't remember it that way. "After he came home, he walked with a limp, she [Carol McCain] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona [Cindy McCain, his current wife] and the rest is history."
Perot's real problem with McCain is that he believes the senator hushed up evidence that live POWs were left behind in Vietnam and even transferred to the Soviet Union for human experimentation, a charge Perot says he heard from a senior Vietnamese official in the 1980s. "There's evidence, evidence, evidence," Perot claims. "McCain was adamant about shutting down anything to do with recovering POWs."
Not surprisingly, McCain sees it differently. He has told me several times over the years that the myth of live POWs was a cruel hoax on the families. He chaired hearings into the issue in the 1990s and found nothing. "The committee did an exhaustive job and poured over thousands of records and every claim of a sighting, no matter how outlandish," says Salter. "It was all untrue."
Perot says he intends to vote for Mitt Romney in the Texas Republican primary on March 4, citing Romney's experience in business and his family values. "When I went to the Naval Academy and met my first Mormons I asked why so many were excellent officers," Perot recalls. "I learned it was because of their strong family unit."
When I asked about Barack Obama, Perot said he admired his eloquence but thought it "a little odd that we would be less concerned about his background than being a Mormon." Perot was pleasantly surprised when I told him that Obama was a Christian, not a Muslim, and relieved when I informed him that the e-mail Perot (and untold others) received about Obama not respecting the Pledge of Allegiance was a fraud.
Perot isn't a Hillary hater, but he's not a fan either, relating the bumper sticker he received that reads: "Monica Lewinsky's Ex-Boyfriend's Wife for President."
The founder of a data-processing empire is still sharp in diagnosing what ails the United States. "The situation in 1992 was not nearly as bad as it is now," he says. "If ever there was a time when it was necessary to put our house in order, it's now.
"It's like having cancer and being in denial. The conduct of the House and Senate is an embarrassment to the nation." President Bush, Perot says, is a "decent person, but you can't say the same thing about the people around him."
Perot is appalled at the specter of big banks having to borrow from foreigners to stay afloat: "We have to go around the world with a tambourine and a tin cup."
He attributes the success of China to the fact that even uneducated Chinese must learn 3,000 characters early in life, compared to the 26 letters in the English alphabet. "Their hand-eye productivity is incredible because of drawing the symbols," Perot says, noting that most of today's Ph.D.s in engineering are from China and India, and only a small percentage from the United States.
Perot offers no easy solutions, instead emphasizing "a strong moral and ethical base, strong homes and the finest schools." He says he's disappointed that big textbook companies successfully lobbied in the Texas state legislature to reverse his landmark school reforms.
The pint-size Texan with the funny voice and the big ears isn't planning to run for president again, but says he will launch a Web site next month with plenty of the charts and graphs he made famous when explaining the deficit in 1992.
Before hanging up, Perot asked me to read the books he recommended on live POWs. I promised him I would.
If I remember right McCain and Kerry were blamed by a lot of vets for shutting down the investigation of Vietnam Era POWs.
And I did vote for Perot in 1992. I thought at least he was trying to do the right thing unlike Bush 41. So yes I'm partially responsible for Bill Clinton becoming president but Bush 41 didn't even try.
“Monica Lewinsky’s Ex-Boyfriend’s Wife for President.”
Bumper Sticker
I want one.@@@@@
So this is the spin. It matters what SORT of Christian Obama is. The sort of liberal Christian who actually thinks that one can dialogue with fanatical Muslims. Even if he is sincere, he is the sort of naif that Jimmy Carter is. Given his attachment to an anti-Israeli Church in an anti-Israeli denomination, full of white Christians who blame the US for the mess in the Middle East, what sort of foreign policy will he propose?
LOL! Ross is like no other. But I’ll never forgive him for his hatred of George H.W. Bush. I’ll never forgive George H.W. Bush for his cynical unconcern for the fate of the POW’s. Ross knows that George W. is a very different sort of man.
Yep, the bs is always spun as the truth.
That's mainly because most college-educated Americans can get a good job with a lower degree. Why reduce your career options by getting a PhD?
Rush is discussing this right now.
Well, his suffering is a problem. I know that the experience left its mark on these men, and each responded in accordance to his character. Bob Dole has suffered far more than McCain from his war-wounds,and the worst one can say about him is his “tartness.” He manages his temper far better than McCain. Ironically, that was a complain about Dole in 1996, that he didn’t show the anger that he has spent his career trying to suppress. McCain is the opposite, his anger is, I fear, existential.
Perot endorsed Bush in 2000 and I think he endorsed Bush in 2004....Now he endorses Romney.
Of the couple of PhDs I know - the reason for the degree was not for career options....it was more a "love of the field" and the desire to advance the knowledge in the field.
|
1992 Presidential election results |
||||
|
Nominee |
Bill Clinton |
George H. W. Bush |
Ross Perot |
Andre Marrou |
|
Party |
Democratic |
Republican |
Independent |
Libertarian |
|
Electoral vote |
370 |
168 |
0 |
0 |
|
Popular vote |
44,909,806 |
39,104,550 |
19,743,821 |
291,627 |
|
Percentage |
43.0% |
37.4% |
18.9% |
0.28% |
Don't ever forget to always blame Libertarians!
Rush discussed this article and the facts about Perot and the anti-McCain Viet-Nam vets in the first hour today. bttt
Big time! In fact I said that to my sister earlier today.
“Did anyone else do Perot’s voice in their head as they were reading his quotes or is it just me?”
I did, too! Who could forget that voice! I always remember him saying, “Measure twice, cut once.” (and Rush’s parody “They’re coming to take me away”.)
I notice there's not much comment on this thread about McCain's marital history. On quite a few occasions, Freepers tend to forget that conservative women don't always think the same as conservative men.
Perot put this very well--Carol waited faithfully for him, kept his family together when he was a POW. Unfortunately, she was involved in an accident that restricted her mobility and she gained weight.
As soon as McCain got back, he dumped Carol for pretty, skinny, younger little blonde Cindy whose daddy was a liquor distributor in Arizona who promised to fund McCain's political ambitions.
Maybe the guys don't despise John McCain for that, but you can be sure the ladies do.
Not that there's not enough to despise him for and fear him for...but McCain treated Carol worse than Bill ever treated Hillary.
Loooking at those figures leaves no doubt that Republicans gave Clinton the election. It may be argued that it was Republicans who would have voted for Perot if the Libertarians had nominated him, but in the end, it was Ross who was responsible. The crazy thing he did was to pull out of the race after the Democrats nominated Clinton. Did he think that Clinton really was a southern moderate? or was he just so angry at Bush that he thought Clinton could beat him? When he found out that Clinton could not win a two-man race, he sure jumped back in.
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