OPINION
Little future seen for Ross Perot
Don Peters
Oh Ross, why did you
come back?
Things am vastly differ
ent this time around, ('all tho
campaign "Perot: The Sequel."
And like most sequela, them is
a high chance of it being a total
flop.
When ho slipped out tho
presidential back door in July,
it caught many — mostly cam
paign supporters — by surprlso.
After pledging to run If his
groupies got him on all SO state
ballots, Perot decided he didn’t
want to be president bad
enough.
Must have been all those nas
ty questions the media was ask
ing.
Baddd media. You should
know better.
Well, three months lutor.
Perot is on every ballot. His en
tourage remains (somewhat)
faithful, and he’s thrown his
10-gallon hut buck into the ring.
Question is, why? Or better
yet. how has this Tolkein-char
actor-gone-huywiro captured
the American public’s adula
tion?
Why he’s running is simple
enough to answer Most presi
dential typos who put them
selves up for public slaughter
do it for ono, or a combination
of throe reasons:
• They think they can win.
• They have a point to make.
• Thoy have really, really big
egos.
On tho first, Perot is a non
starter. The colloquial term is
"snowball's chance.” Back be
fore his July bow-out, maybe he
could have wheedled his way
into the White House, Now. his
credibility shot all to hell,
Perot’s popularity is running in
tho single digits.
I ui <irfi.fr*
1 <>0Mf a M
I KtiMM-lof
\ fk r ,MC
No, Ross is back in for the
latter I wo reasons. Ho rollshos
the spoiler roll, though ho de
nios it. Ho wunts to tweak the
noses of Bush and Clinton. And
— I'll bo gracious hero — he
wants to air his controversial
views, because he truly be
lieves in them.
As for his ego — none come
much bigger. He plays his ever
shrinking constituents on a
string, confident they will stick
with him no matter what ho
does.
Tho scary purl is that he's
right.
What is it about Ross that ap
peals to tho American public? It
isn’t his frightening ideas for
deficit control, his wiggod-out
plan for fighting the drug war
or any of his other amorphous
campaign planks.
No. Most of his support
comos from the fad he’s not a
"politician.’’ which in these
days of anti-incumbency back
lash is good for some percent
age points, even if you are an
egomaniac who’s idea of em
ployee supervision would
make Lon Mabon blanch.
And to give credit where it’s
deserved. Perot hus also suc
cessfully tapped the quirky
American political legacy that
loves a rogue.
By being the Iconoclast, the
outsider, the very Imago of the
knight slaying bloated political
dragons. Perot has once again
reaffirmed that Americans root
for the underdog
No matter how strange his
ideas, Porot attracts supporters
because he's different, an odd
ball out of the status quo. His
biggest political advantage Is
that he's not Bush or (Hinton
In a land, as Bill Murray said
in Stripes, where your ances
tors were kicked out of every
decent country in the world,
being different wins votes.
Hero’s a prediction: Perot
will run a campaign of a kind
novor soon before. He’ll Ixi In
cluded in the television debates
because to shun him would
only add to his outsider image
He'll probably even land a few
pre-plannod debate zlngers on
the two fuvorites.
Throughout the campaign.
Bush ami Clinton will treat him
like u mosquito; annoying, but
one who'll suck a little of your
blood if you lot him got too
close. Perot's popularity will
continue to hover uround 10
percent.
C-omo Nov 3, Perot will lose
Badly. In the post-election In
terviews he'll crow about
"making a point." or "showing
the two parties they can't Ig
nore the American public."
And then he'll slink back to
Texas, never to be a political
factor again.
Omt Peters is freelance editor
of the Kmeruld.
rrr< vra-TTMtirtriT STY13333.1332^
SPRINGFIELD
SCIENTIFIC
SUPPLIES
Scales
Chemicals
Lab Equipment
9-6 Mon-Fri • 10-5 Sat
726*9176
1124 Main St.
Cash
For Textbooks
Mon -SjI
Smith I ;imil\
Bookstore
768 E. 13th
1 Block From Campus
345-1651
Hewlett Packard HP-108B...$29.95
HP-32SIL.S59.95
Sharp EL5096...$12.95
TDK
SA60
$1.99
MAXELL to 90
UDXLII
CASSETTE TAPES
SONY
UX90
$1.89
G*t results. Advert Is* In the
ODE
Do Your Share!
• The tlorm f«m>«l svr\ it. r eliminated
paper eup use by 22 «»/.
refill a hie tmiRft.
• The K.MI! K selling refutable nui^ «*
cimI, offering; beverage discounts v%ith
Ihrir use.
• Net I me waste before you buy
- pre-cycle
OKI »*»N Dam V I MI MAI D
.S|H»nsutnl ■*> : \ m ^uvskii m\ is«. iv-<
DELUXE
BURRITO
corn chi)* &
/{> oz ilnnk
COM P A N Y
I resit, I it, / ust Mexican I ood ***«,,.t «nii>.n.-,.
.it t* Will.tnu'ttf
u>,11 ■•}
J
j)®aaia
91 30 PM
n
With I
Friday October 9
Taylors College Side Inn
THE PAR SIDE
By GARY LARSON
at '«*mm
Years later, Harold Zimmerman, the original
Hook hand" of campfire ghoet stories, tails hie
grandchildren the Tale of the Two Evil Teen-agers.