Ross Perot

Ross Perot is a fake. He is such a good fraud that he is able to convince thousands of Americans that he offers Nirvana to our economy and country without providing one solid solution. He will soon outperform our famous TV evangelists. Let's go back in history a bit. Perot made his initial fortune on the backs of American taxpayers by winning computer contracts for Social Security and other federal benefits. He condemns pork barrel grants, yet he and his son convinced a government agency to construct new highways to their Texas airport.

The big vote came and went, and Ross Perot was back on the stump Thursday making his case against the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Backlash against the pact," he said, would make it "a watershed event in American politics. " But how many out there were listening? A leader who so recently inspired universal terror in the political class, Perot has emerged from the NAFTA fight with his powers diminished, or worse. Even as he crusaded against the treaty, public opinion swung toward it. With his poll ratings in a swoon, few analysts now give him a chance of becoming president, and some are wondering whether his influence is in permanent decline.

A colleague from out of state called to inquire, "What is it about these Texas runts?" He meant the political runts with attitude. "I'm talking about Ross Perot, Claytie Williams, John Tower, Bill Clements. What is it with these people?" I explained that it is not easy to be a short, male Texan. If you can't be a long, tall Texan, our tradition calls for you weigh in with at least 130 pounds of bad attitude to make up for it. Nor is the phenomenon limited to Republicans and right-wingers.

Molly Ivins says Ross Perot reminds her of a chihuahua. The mindless yapping fits, although we have always thought more in terms of a demented dwarf duck. But hey, we're in the same ballpark, right? At any rate, while we listen to his nativist prattle and the chorus of California pols who want to seal the border to everybody but their own personal gardener, let us pause to consider last year's threat to our very way of life. The Japanese. When last we got intense about those folks, we were profoundly annoyed with them for having made better automobiles and electronic gear.

Dear Ed: Congratulations on signing on to (co-)run Ross Perot's campaign. I'm very proud of the fact that you got your professional start in the Nixon administration. I have always liked to keep an eye on young people - not just protesters - and I often recall your truly remarkable work as congressional liaison in the Department of Transportation. The way I see it, as brilliantly as Perot's handled himself to date, he needs only to play one more card to make sure he picks up all the chips.

Ross Perot may be a great American and a great businessman, but as a pollster he is a failure. His recent televised national referendum on NBC was a textbook case of what not to do if you want to know what the nation thinks. For years, professors will compare the results of Perot's referendum on government reform to scientific polls so students can see what happens when loaded questions are asked of an unrepresentative group of Americans. Some will likely call the results an "unscientific poll.

This presidential campaign could get real interesting yet. H. Ross Perot may be coming to the party with buckets of money and near-shocking positions. You ask: H. Ross who? Who indeed! Mr. Perot, who made himself a billionaire from a mere $1,000 investment in a computer company called Electronic Data Systems, has long been a capitalist folk hero in his native Texas. And he has a knack for capturing national headlines - whether it be for trying to airmail Christmas packages to American prisoners of war in North Vietnam or for successfully springing two EDS employees from a Tehran jail during the shah of Iran's downfall in 1979.

Ross Perot may be wrong more often than right, but when he is right, he is right-on. He was right to oppose the Persian Gulf war, even though his own quasi- military exploits have exhibited the George Bush-style wink-and-nod approach to international law. And he is right to insist the national debt be reduced, even though the governmental accommodations he sought as a businessman have been part of the irresponsible policies that helped create...

The point about Ross Perot's sudden and sensational claim that he dropped out of the presidential race because of a Bush-Quayle plot to disrupt his daughter's wedding is not that it is one more wacky element in a wacky campaign. Nor is the point that Perot has once more revealed himself to have a bizarre affinity for conspiracy theories. The point, rather, is this: No matter what the truth of Perot's accusation (and he has offered absolutely no credible evidence to back it up)

When Michael Smerconish announced his resignation as regional HUD director and PHA overseer on WWDB's Paul W. Smith program yesterday morning - with TV cameras rolling tape to capture the moment - observers couldn't help but voice a cynical question: "Who does he think he is, Ross Perot?" You'll recall that Perot, in keeping with his promise for democratizing the political process with "electronic town meetings," declared his candidacy for the presidency on Larry King's call-in show.

Tonight, Barack Obama caps an unprecedented advertising campaign with the first half-hour presidential commercial on network TV since independent Ross Perot reached into his own deep pockets in 1992 and got higher ratings than some sitcoms. It's likely the 8 p.m. presentation will do that, too, given the sad state of TV sitcoms these days and the fact that Obama will be broadcasting in what is nearly an advertising "roadblock," across three of the four major networks. Seeking to pique curiosity, the Obama campaign has been tight-lipped about the ad, which will cost more than $3 million.

SOME OF us wrote and sang some songs and hopefully influenced a few lives positively along the way. But Hy Lit changed millions. In an era of AM-dominant radio, he created the FM splendor and inundated it with the European sounds of the Beatles, Stones, Animals and the rest. His feel for the future was Orwellian. Thanks to his AM roots, his antennae always called our attention to the latest Motown magic and New York slick hits. Hy was my brother-in-law, but it was what he did that made him a giant.

Dr. Phil: "Today we're talking with VIPs who say they did their best to stop politicians from bloating the budget, slashing taxes, and abusing our children with IOUs. It's one of 2009's hottest topics now that we're getting hammered by high interest rates and we're $10 trillion in hock to everybody from Beijing to Bahrain. Hey, Ross Perot, you warned us about this disaster, right?" Perot: "Yep, Phil. I talked turkey when I ran for president in 1992 - and 20 million patriots voted for me!

AWHILE BACK, Gwyneth Paltrow criticized the dating acumen of British men, calling them inattentive and tepid. The golden girl eventually pulled herself out of hot water by issuing a modest apology, and by marrying Chris Martin, lead singer for Coldplay and Her Majesty's loyal servant. I thought of Gwynnie the other day when speaking with my little sister, who has taken a break from her expatriate life in London to visit the family in the colonies. Tara, despite being a dead-ringer for Holly Marie Combs and brilliant to boot, is single.

According to the New York Times (and did anyone ever think that phrase would be accompanied by a trapdoor of doubt?), fewer than one in three Americans think President Bush's tax cut will cure the ailing economy. Fifty-eight percent think we should reduce the soaring budget deficit instead. Which suggests that with little prompting by congressional Democrats - who today lack the megaphone to get even their relatives much riled up about anything - the public senses something is amiss.

WHAT GRATES ON me most about the Bush administration, besides its isolationist and anti-environmental programs, is its smugness, its inflated sense of superiority. This president did not exactly overwhelm his opponent on Election Day. In fact, his rival got a half-million more votes. That's why it's unconscionable for Bush and his appointees, in answer to media questions about White House policies, to respond as National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice did Sunday on TV: "The president was not elected to sign treaties . . . not in America's best interests.

Take a look at the official tourism slogan for the state of Texas: "Texas: It's like a whole other country. " Memo to Al Gore: President-elect George W. Bush is a foreigner. Lawsuit! Recount! It's true. Texas was once its own country - the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston was the president after Texans gained independence from Mexico following the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. Then Texas entered the Union as the 28th state in 1845. But to many across the nation, Texas still seems like a foreign country.

The always rowdy Reform Party split hopelessly yesterday on the eve of its national convention, as a shoving and shouting match broke out between Patrick J. Buchanan's supporters and loyalists to party founder Ross Perot. A closed-door meeting of the party's national committee that was supposed to ensure an orderly convention to nominate a presidential candidate dissolved into a walkout by Perot backers. It ended in two separate meetings - each claiming legitimacy as the party's true rulers - and raised the prospect of two rival conventions.

Will he or won't he? Supporters of Ross Perot will find out tomorrow whether the Dallas billionaire will enter the national primary by mail-in ballot for the Reform Party presidential nomination. In a last-ditch effort to stop conservative front-runner Pat Buchanan, party activists loyal to Perot say they have collected the necessary signatures to get Perot on the primary ballot. All they need is his permission, in writing, by the July 1 deadline. Former New Jersey Reform Party chairman Ira Goodman, who quit when Buchanan forces took over the state party, led the petition drive and has collected more than 8,000 signatures in 18 states.

While Al Gore and George W. Bush have been slugging it out and dominating the news, Republican dropout Patrick J. Buchanan has been operating largely under the radar for most of the year, trying to stage a quiet coup of the national Reform Party. But while his methodical march toward the presidential nomination seems virtually assured - in part because his rivals are anemic - he has also alienated many Reform members, particularly those who trace their loyalties to the party founder, Ross Perot.