Word: perots
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...there some things that Perot proposed, like the gasoline tax, that you think might now be more palatable to the public...
...beginning to receive. It had accurately signaled Clinton's priorities -- which remain basically intact -- but there was little supporting data. Experts like Representative Leon Panetta and Alice Rivlin (whom Clinton has tapped for the two top slots at his budget office) derided the plan as unsound, and Ross Perot ridiculed Clinton for a "a bunch of junk numbers that don't compute." Perot's criticism dovetailed perfectly with Republican claims that Clinton was a tax-and-spend liberal, and the Democrat's standing in the polls sank precipitously...
...spiraling health-care costs caused the CBO to increase its estimate of the 1996 deficit by $100 billion, a profound change that both the Clinton and Bush campaigns conveniently ignored. "To accommodate the CBO's new predictions would have made it look like we were caving in to Perot's view of the world," says a Clinton adviser. "Also, redoing PPF would have told the constituencies we needed to win that we'd be hard pressed to fund the programs that were attracting them to us. Shutting up was smart politically, and it worked because it was in Bush...
John White "drafted Ross Perot's economic plan," Clinton said as he introduced his chosen agent in Little Rock, "and later, much to my delight, endorsed the Clinton-Gore ticket...
White's pedigree was especially important to Clinton. The 19 million people who voted for Perot represent the nation's political balance of power. To ensure his re-election and garner the support he needs for his programs, Clinton must have the Perot constituency in his corner. His challenge is analogous to Richard Nixon's in 1968. Following that election, the George Wallace vote was up for grabs. The Wallaceites were mostly Democrats, and they could have reverted to their traditional home, but Nixon lured them to the G.O.P. with his Silent Majority rhetoric...