Ross Perot???? Howard Dean???

[Bouncy Ball]

I was talking to a friend on the phone that I haven't talked to in about a year. Back in college he was UBERliberal and has since gotten a job in finance, is going to law school, and moved to the northern burbs (FAR northern) of Dallas---repukeville.

So I was a bit worried. But then he called Iraq "a total fucking clusterfuck of epic proportions" and I thought maybe he might still be liberal.

Sure enough, he voted for Kerry! But then he said something weird: he said we need ROSS PEROT!!! I nearly fell over laughing. I told him "Hey, I voted for him in 92, but, um, isn't he kinda crazy?"

He proceeded to tell me all the qualities he thought were good in Perot and what was funny was, his description started to remind me of Howard Dean, of all people.

I'm not sure Perot was ever much of a populist, but beyond that, I found the similarities striking.

I told my friend this and he said "You know, I didn't pay much attention to the primaries, so I don't know much about Dean, but if what you are saying about him is true, I like him a lot already."

So what, was I totally off base in thinking there are some parallels between him and Perot in their style? I know there are TONS of differences, but they are (or were, in Perot's case?) fiery, passionate, not afraid to speak the truth, cutting through the bullshit kinda guys.

[hippiechick]

1. um they're both short.

and they despise the Bush Administration(s).

:shrug: That's about the only similarities I can think of.

[jswordy]

2. Except that Perot is and was a...

...political lightweight and kind of "politically intellectual" lightweight, too. He did indeed ID some of the pertinent issues that haunt us to this day, but the man was much better suited to business than politics.

On the other hand, in Dean we have a man who is pretty comfortable in politics. For all the folks telling us he does not have it, Dean DOES have finesse abilities. Perot was almost totally devoid of them.

I can see the likenesses, but to me they are not real similarities.

[Bouncy Ball]

3. I agree with you there.

Perot was truly a lightweight.

And if he really wanted to make changes, why didn't he stay in the game in some fashion? Dean always said it wasn't about him (during the primaries) and he put his money where his mouth is. He's still around. Perot, long gone.

[On the Road]

4. Ross Perot Was a Conservative Populist

He was balanced-budget type. Protectionist. Socially moderate. Actually, Dean is not too bad a comparison, although Howard is more mainstream and more accomplished.

Perot was not all bad -- I think I voted for him myself in 1992.

[Bouncy Ball]

5. Can't remember? LOL

I remember EVERYONE I knew voted for him. My neocon in-laws (who were not neocons back then but just garden variety republicans totally unimpressed with the first bush), my own family, who always voted Dem, not independent, my husband, myself, ALL of my friends.

It was weird.

Just glad we helped to get Clinton elected in the end.

[On the Road]

6. My Reason for Supporting Perot Was the Deficit

Personally, I didn't think Clinton could balance the budget. I thought it would take a single-issue candidate who didn't care whether raising taxes was political suicide. I was wrong, and I'm glad Clinton got elected.

[American Tragedy]

7. Actually, we can partly thank Ross Perot for the balanced budget

The pressure of his candidacy forced the major parties to directly address public debt and made it a permanent part of the Democratic party platform. Of course, it doesn't matter now, since we're in far worse shape now than we were during that crisis.

Also, people forget that he was damned effective as a salesman. That was his job. He got out there with his great big pie charts and he played like an economics instructor lecturing ten-year-olds. Perot rightly presumed that his audience knew very, very little, and thus explained macroeconomics with very basic individual analogies. It worked, at least until he imploded.

[rniel]

8. Perot was so repetitive about the deficit

Over and over and over about it. How we are doing our grandchildren wrong letting the deficit get out of hand.

I even think people wouldn't have made such an issue about it if he hadn't brought it up over and over.

We need someone to push this in 2008.

I did vote for him. That he was an outsider to politics and businessman was a strength I felt. Better than the same old guys who always run for president.