Wikipedia:Today's featured article/December 12, 2010

The Ross Perot presidential campaign of 1992 was an effort spawned by grassroots supporters to elect Texas industrialist Ross Perot as President of the United States as an independent candidate. Perot focused the campaign on the federal budget, economic nationalism, an escalation of the war on drugs and implementation of "electronic town halls". He largely financed his own campaign and relied on marketing and widespread grassroots support to spread his message. In certain polls, Perot led the three-way race with Republican nominee George H. W. Bush, the incumbent President, and Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, the Democratic nominee. He dropped out in July 1992 amid controversy, but reentered in October, and surpassed the 15% polling threshold to reach his goal of participating in all three presidential debates. Despite an aggressive use of campaign infomercials on prime time network television, his polling numbers never fully recovered from his initial exit. On Election Day, Perot appeared on every state ballot. He won several counties and finished in third place, receiving close to 19 percent of the popular vote, the most won by a third-party presidential candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. (more...)