From: mickel@OES.ORST.EDU (Paul M. Mickel)
Newsgroups: or.politics,pnw.general
Subject: Re: Perot's (latest) candidacy
Date: 1 Oct 92 03:23:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.BvFAs1.2A8
Organization: Oregon Extension Service, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Or.

>>Are you saying that the American public is stupid enough to allow
>>themselves to be fooled year after year?? Hey, I'll go along with that!

Some might argue that Perot is trying to fool people with his non-commital
run for presidency. However, I heard the views from a person in our office 
that made me think that there might be something going on.

This person's view of Perot's latest announcement goes something along the 
lines of this:

    "Perot is essentially saying that he wants the issues facing the nation
today to be dealt with in a serious manner, without the politics that the
Demos and the Reps have been engaging in for some time now. The best way for
him to have these issues addressed, he may feel, is to say 'I'll back which-
ever candidate will deal with these issues seriously. And if I find that 
*NEITHER ONE* do, then I will consider running myself, if I get on the ballot
of every state.'" 





There are several things that may give substance to this argument:

0. Perot, when the presidency issue first came up, said that he would only 
   consider running if there was enough consensus to get him on the ballot in
   every state. I remember reading this back in May (I belelieve, can't remem-
   ber for sure).

1. In an interview with Time this last summer, Perot stated specifically that
   he didn't want to run if it would hurt the process of addressing the issues
   facing the nation today. He may have bowed out at first because he felt his
   lack of preparation would *HAVE* hurt this process. He might have also
   bowed out because he didn't want personal things (Hart's sex scandal) to 
   distract the voters from making their evaluations of the issues.

2. His statements concerning the status of his "campaign" seem to indicate that
   he is not necessarily driven by a burning desire to be President. Rather, it
   takes on impression of "If you call me, I'll serve", which is an attitude 
   that most people, especially myself, have not see in a very long time in 
   this time.

3. In the interview in 2., Perot basically rejects the idea that Bush and others
   "didn't know" about Iran-Contra, etc. He reasoned that those people were 
   reporting to him, so it was likely that they did know most of the details.
   He applied reasoning that most people probably would (this is an assumption
   on my part that may be incorrect). 


This is probably the most interesting Presidential election I have seen. I'm
not quite sure what kind of President Perot would make, but based on above,
I find that he is helping the process more that people would argue that it's
hurting it. Remember that Perot is not in service yet, and as such he is not
"bound" to run if he feels that he doesn't want to. I personally am tired of 
hearing the Democrats blame Republicans for all the problems of this country 
and vice versa. It seems to me that these two parties are more concerned with
the amount of power they can attain at the expense of the country, and I feel
that neither Bush or Clinton either know or care about the problems facing 
this country, as much as they might profess to the contray. Bush's track 
record of backing down speaks for itself, and Clinton strikes me as a used 
car salesman. Neither of these candidates talk about dealing with "the issues",
but I am not convinced that either one is really serious.

Of course, I could be really cynical, and write myself in on the ballot on 
Nov 3..........

-pmm


-- 
Paul M. Mickel			  	   Internet:mickel@oes.orst.edu
Sysadmin, Oregon Extension Service	   Corvallis, OR 97331
Database Programmer, Teledyne Wah Chang    Albany, OR