From: de5@ORNL.GOV (Dave Sill)
Subject: Re: 1-800-925-1300
Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 19:02:53 GMT

In article <1992Oct9.143053.5160@aio.jsc.nasa.gov>, walker@superboy.jsc.nasa.gov (Doug Walker) writes:
>
>Please explain to me how someone who had never ANNOUNCED his candidacy
>could pull out?

ANNOUNCED or NOT, Perot was actively campaigning and announced during the
Democratic Convention that he was not going to seek office.  You (and he) can
play all the games you want with whether he was an official candidate or not,
but he was in, he pulled out, and he re-entered.  Now, some argue whether he
ever really pulled out--they say he was just trying to shed the national
limelight while he worked behind the scenes--but that doesn't wash.  *I* say
he pulled out, *I* say he broke his promise to *me*, and *I* refuse to vote
for him.  I still agree with his message, I've just lost the ability to trust
him.  He blew it.  He had a good chance of winning, but he pulled out (or
played games) and rather than building support, lost the trust of many of his
supporters.

>Also, Perot saw, as I did, the democratic party at the
>convention address real issues and actually perform admirably.  I was
>quite impressed as was Perot evidently.  Where Perot's assessment and
>mine difered is that I realized that the only reason the dems were
>acting so rational waas because Perot was in the race.

You must have watched a different convention than the one I saw, which was
pretty much the same "new" moderate, socialist, Democratic line Clinton's been
hawking all along.  I saw nothing to make me believe that Clinton supported
any of Perot's plans or addressed any of his concerns.  He didn't adopt
Tsongas' economic plan.  He didn't adopt Perot's gas tax increase.  He still
thinks he can vastly increase spending by raising taxes and cutting spending
in other areas.  Have the Democrats in congress even endorsed Clinton's plans?
It seems likely to me that he'll have an easier time spending money than
cutting spending.  Will he wait until his cuts pass before increasing
spending? 

>I realized at the time that if Perot dropped out of the race it would be back
>to dirty politics as usual.  As it was.

Err, I thought you said he wasn't *in* the race, yet here you say he dropped
out?  Uh huh.

>Also, I think Perot felt as if his
>organization was being taken over by the professional handlers (Ed
>Rollins and Hamiltom Jordan and their staffs) and he did not like that,
>or the deriction that these people were taking him.

Oh that's great.  He couldn't handle his own handlers?  And he's supposed to
be able to "clean out the barn" in Washington.  Riiight.

>Perot was forcibly bought out of GM.  His contract stated that if the
>Board of Directors voted to buy him out the he had no choice.  Even
>after this happened he went to them and said "Don't do this.  You can't
>afford it".  

I don't know, I was led to believe that he didn't put up as much of a fight as
expected.

You wanted one example of Perot being a quitter.  I gave two, and your
responses haven't convinced me that at least the first is not valid.

-- 
Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)           For every Bill Joy there is a Kirk McKusick.
Martin Marietta Energy Systems     For every Bill Gates there is a Richard
Workstation Support                Stallman.                     --Paul Graham