Exactly 22 years ago George Bush, Sr., was running for re-election as president of the
For historians let me set
the record straight. Yes Teddy was
elected vice president in 1900 and became president when President William
McKinley was shot September 6 and died September 14 of 1901, his first year in
office. Teddy was then elected by a
landslide in 1904.
In 1908 he supported his secretary
of war, William Howard Taft for president and Taft won. By the end of Taft's first term Roosevelt
felt Taft no longer served the people and when he failed to beat Taft at the
GOP convention he started a third party, the Bull Moose (progressive) party to
oppose the president.
This is where the
parallels between Ross Perot and Teddy Roosevelt become intertwined as if
history was simply repeating itself about 100 years later.
In the election of 1912
Republican President Taft got 23% of the vote, Independent Roosevelt got 27% of
the vote, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson became president with just 42% of the
vote. Thus Roosevelt
blocked Taft from being re-elected and made Wilson President.
After his first term in
office in 1992 President Bush was running for re-election riding the popularity
of Desert Storm when Ross Perot, a former Republican like Teddy Roosevelt, came
out of nowhere with his Independent campaign.
In the election of 1992
Republican President Bush got 38% of the vote, Independent Ross Perot got 19%
of the vote, and Democrat Bill Clinton became president with just 43% of the
vote. Thus Perot blocked Bush from being
re-elected and made Clinton President.
During Clinton 's first term Ross Perot sought to
influence the national agenda focusing on three issues, the NAFTA economic
treaty, Health Care Reform and rebuilding our educational system.
He opposed NAFTA, an issue
Clinton
co-opted from the GOP because he was in danger of losing his re-election
campaign. Perot warned passage of NAFTA
would lead to the destruction of our manufacturing industries and we would lose
millions of jobs to Mexico
and other countries. Clinton
got it passed and the final nail was driven into the coffin of America 's once
dominate manufacturing base.
On health care Perot
warned the lack of cost controls would bankrupt America , and any government
entitlement programs regarding health care like Medicare and Medicaid would
drive the American deficit beyond our capacity to pay. In 1996 the US
national debt was $107.4 billion under Clinton
and by 1998 would become a surplus through Bush in 2001.
Today the National debt stands
at a record $17 trillion, thanks in large part to runaway entitlement costs as
predicted by Perot. In fact America spends
more per capita than any other nation on health care yet ranks just 37th in the
world in terms of quality of health care.
Finally, Perot was so
disgusted with the deficiencies in our education system that he started his own
high school in Dallas
and was to set records for educational achievement and college attendance by
urban youth. Today our educational
system continues to spend more per pupil than any other nation and we still are
failing in terms of the quality of educational care.
Sooo, Ross Perot, the
caricature from Texas who dared challenge the
American two-party system was a figment of historical déjà vu showing up 100
years after Teddy Roosevelt played the same role for America .
More on the Prairie Prophet from Texas later as the story of Ross Perot and his unbending care for the nation, commitment to veterans, exceptional patriotism and whose incredible rescue of his employees from the prison of Iran after the failure of President Carter to protect our own embassy in the fall of Iran to the Ayatollah is one of the greatest stories of courage to ever take place in our nation.
US hostages in Iran 1979 |
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