Word: perots
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...wasn't all his fault. Any challenger to Bill Clinton would have had an uphill climb. When the economy is growing and the country is not at war, the incumbent always benefits. But some of Perot's most publicized post-'92 positions--in particular his campaigns to defeat NAFTA and GATT--had fizzled badly...
...Perot helped by Colin Powell's flirtation with an independent run for the White House last year. The retired general's prospective candidacy raised the hopes of millions of voters. And when he decided to remain a private citizen and join the Republican Party, the legions of disenfranchised supporters took their disappointment out on protest candidates in general. Few of those still open to the concept saw Perot as an adequate substitute for the charismatic Gulf War hero...
Were it not for the missteps of his main-party opponents, Perot wouldn't have been much of a factor in the race at all. He was languishing at 5% or 6% in the polls until the Democrats blundered into a series of campaign-finance flaps--prime Perot territory--and Bob Dole made his ill-advised request that Perot leave the race. The attention he had been deprived of because of his exclusion from the debates suddenly rained down upon what had become a nearly irrelevant sideshow. As a result, his support nearly doubled, though by Election...
With or without Perot, a third party will never have it easy. The Republicans and Democrats are well entrenched, and only an overpowering reason would cause voters to reject them. So far they haven't found one, and G.O.P. pollster Ed Goeas doubts they will. "Independent voters are disaffected, and they don't pay enough attention," he says. "It always ends up back in a two-party system...
...fumbles and foibles, Perot has made a mark on the political landscape. Against steep odds he created a bona fide third party whose presidential candidate in the year 2000 will qualify for taxpayer funding. Lamm and his supporters are already vying for the money, which will amount to several million dollars. More immediately, Perot has helped put two issues squarely at the center of the nation's agenda: campaign-finance reform and the need to overhaul Medicare and Social Security. "If Ross Perot had only known what to do with the remnants of a losing presidential campaign," says Ralph Reed...