From: mpye@netcom.com (Michael Pye)
Subject: Stockdale NAILED it!
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 09:50:38 GMT

   Before we write off the Perot campaign and, in particular, Admiral 
Stockdale, let's take a closer look.  Okay, the man is inarticulate.  
That's all?  Big deal!

   Look at what he has done instead of becoming a slick politician.  
He not only has survived seven years in a prisoner of war camp being 
tortured and psychologically abused, but he was also responsible for 
the lives of his fellow soldiers.  He was their moral and spiritual 
leader in a situation the average person would find unbearable if all 
he had to do was survive -- without the responsibility of the 
physical and psychic survival of others.

   This man is a true hero - and I don't use that term lightly.  This 
man is as intelligent as anyone who has been or ever will be 
president.  And this man has vastly more 'character' than all of the 
other five candidates put together.

   He is not incompetent.  But, he is also not a robo-pol or a 
snickering boy wonder.  No, he is an honorable man doing an honorable 
thing -- reluctantly agreeing to be running mate for a friend he 
respects; entering into an arena where he is clearly uncomfortable.

   Give me a reluctant candidate anytime.  Give me an honorable 
candidate anytime.  Give me an intelligent, thoughtful, sincere 
candidate anytime.

  If Stockdale can find the resources to survive and lead for seven 
years in a POW camp in North Vietnam, he can surely find the 
resources to be vice president, or even president for that matter.

   As far as Perot's judgement is concerned:

Could or should Perot have prepared Stockdale any better?

   My answer is yes and no.  Yes, he could have but no he shouldn't 
have, (and it looks like he didn't).  Perot is a funny kind of guy; 
he has faith in the people he thinks can handle the job.

   In this case, Stockdale's job was to support Perot's policies, 
which he did; distance himself from the din of political cat 
fighting, which he did; and maybe put perspective on his own 
shortcomings, which he also did.  Not only that, but he made the 
other two idiots look exactly like that -- idiots!  If you can get by 
his halting delivery and listen to what he was trying to say, it made 
sense.  His points may have been brief, but they were substantive 
points. And, since when is a long, slicked up political reply 
considered desirable. Not to Stockdale. He actually went as far as to 
turn off his hearing aid to stop the barrage he was hearing!

Did Perot make a mistake choosing Stockdale?

   Notwithstanding the timing problem of choosing a VP with his 
departure and reentry into the campaign, Perot's judgement is sound 
in sticking with Stockdale.

  Perot WANTS to emphasize the difference between his campaign and 
the others'.  What better way to do it than with a guy like Stockdale 
as your running mate: beyond reproach, a genuine hero, an 
intellectual, endearingly (though maddeningly) inarticulate.  No 
slick Willie here folks.  Just a red, white and blue American 
antithesis of the professional politician.  Precisely Perot's 
message.

   Perot has his faults, but he is no idiot.


   -- Mark Fragnoli

Newsgroups: alt.politics.perot