Ross Perot

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Henry Ross Perot
Perot at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 2008
Born (1930-06-27) June 27, 1930 (age 93)
EducationTexarkana Junior College
United States Naval Academy
OccupationBusinessman
Political partyIndependent
Reform
SpouseMargot Birmingham
ChildrenH. Ross, Jr., Nancy, Suzanne, Carolyn, and Katherine
Websiteperotcharts.com

Henry Ross Perot (born June 27, 1930) is an American businessman from Texas best known for running for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot Systems in 1988. Perot Systems was bought by Dell for $3.9 billion in 2009. He was born in Texarkana, Texas.[1]

With an estimated net worth of about US$3.5 billion in 2009, he is ranked by Forbes as the 85th-richest person in America.[2]

Early life

Perot was born in Texarkana, Texas, to Luly Maye Perot (née Ray) and Gabriel Ross Perot.[3] His father was a cotton broker.[4] He attended a private school called Patty Hill. The family went to church[vague] every Sunday. He graduated from Texas High School in Texarkana in 1947.[5]

Perot joined the Boy Scouts of America and made Eagle Scout in 1942, after only thirteen months in the program. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.[6][7]

Perot entered the United States Naval Academy in 1949 and helped establish its honor system.[6] By the time he graduated in 1953 he was president of his class and battalion commander.[citation needed] By late 1954, Perot was made a lieutenant, junior grade. In 1955, however, Perot expressed some discontent with his life in the United States Navy in a letter to his father. He quietly served the remainder of his four-year commitment and resigned his commission.[citation needed]

Perot married Margot Birmingham of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1956.

Business

After he left the Navy in 1957, Perot became a salesman for International Business Machines (IBM). He quickly became a top employee, filling his year's sales quota in two weeks,[8] and tried to pitch his ideas to supervisors who largely ignored him. He left IBM in 1962 to found Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Dallas, Texas, and courted large corporations for his data processing services. Perot was refused seventy-seven times before he was given his first contract. EDS received lucrative contracts from the U.S. government in the 1960s, computerizing Medicare records. EDS went public in 1968 and the stock price rose from $16 a share to $160 within days. Fortune called Perot the "fastest, richest Texan" in a 1968 cover story. In 1984 General Motors bought controlling interest in EDS for $2.4 billion.

In 1974 Perot gained some press attention for being "the biggest individual loser ever on the New York Stock Exchange" when his EDS shares dropped $450 million in value in a single day in April 1970.[9]

Just prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the government of Iran imprisoned two EDS employees in a contract dispute. Perot organized and sponsored their rescue. The rescue team was led by retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Arthur D. ('Bull') Simons. When the team was unable to find a way to extract their two prisoners, they decided to wait for a mob of pro-Ayatollah revolutionaries to storm the jail and free all 10,000 inmates, many of whom were political prisoners. The two prisoners then connected with the rescue team, and the team spirited them out of Iran via a risky border crossing into Turkey. The exploit was recounted in a book, On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett, which became a best-seller. In the 1986 miniseries, Perot was portrayed by Richard Crenna.

In 1984 Perot bought a very early copy of the Magna Carta, one of only a few to leave the United Kingdom. It was lent to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where it was displayed alongside the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. On September 25, 2007, The New York Times reported that the Perot Foundation had terminated the loan and that Sotheby's would auction off the document in December 2007.[10] The document sold for $21.3 million USD on December 18, 2007.

In 1988 he founded Perot Systems Corporation, Inc. in Plano, Texas. His son, H. Ross Perot, Jr., eventually succeeded him as CEO. Today, Perot Sr. serves as Chairman Emeritus, and Perot Jr. serves as Chairman. In September 2009, Dell announced the acquisition of Perot Systems for $3.9 billion.[11]

Early political activities

In the same year that Perot organized the rescue mission in Iran, Texas governor Bill Clements requested his assistance developing policy to reduce illegal drug use.[citation needed] Perot led the Texas War on Drugs Committee that proposed five laws, all of which were passed by the legislature.[citation needed]

In 1983 he was called upon by Democratic Governor Mark White to help improve the quality of the state's public education, and ended up leading the effort ("Select Committee on Public Education") to reform the school system, which resulted in major legislative changes.[citation needed] The best known of Perot's proposals that were passed into law was the "No Pass, No Play" rule, under which it was required that students have passing grades in order to participate in any school-sponsored extracurricular activities.[citation needed] The intent was to prevent high school sports from being the focus of the school's funding, and to emphasize the importance of education for the students who participated in sports.[citation needed] Another key reform measure was a call for teacher competency testing, which was strongly opposed by the teachers unions in Texas.[citation needed]

Perot became heavily involved in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. He believed that hundreds of American servicemen were left behind in Southeast Asia at the end of the U.S. involvement in the war,[12] and that government officials were covering up POW/MIA investigations in order to avoid revealing a drug smuggling operation used to finance a secret war in Laos.[13] Perot engaged in unauthorized back-channel discussions with Vietnamese officials in the late 1980s, which led to fractured relations between Perot and the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.[12][13] In 1990, Perot reached agreement with Vietnam's Foreign Ministry to become its business agent in the event that diplomatic relations were normalized.[14] Perot also launched private investigations of, and attacks upon, U.S. Department of Defense official Richard Armitage.[12][13]

Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing in the early 1990s, Ross Perot began speaking out about what he described as the failings of the United States government.[citation needed] Perot asserted that the United States "had grown arrogant and complacent after the War" and was no longer the world's greatest nation. Instead of looking into what was to come, he argued, America was "daydreaming of [its] past while the rest of the world was building its future."[citation needed] He said:

Go to Rome, go to Paris, go to London. Those cities are centuries old. They're thriving. They're clean. They work. Our oldest cities are brand new compared to them and yet… go to New York, drive through downtown Washington, go to Detroit, go to Philadelphia. What's wrong with us?

[citation needed]

In Florida in 1990, retired financial planner Jack Gargan funded a series of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" (a reference to a famous quotation from the 1976 political and mass media satire movie, Network) newspaper advertisements denouncing the U.S. Congress for voting for legislative pay raises at a time when average wages nationwide were not increasing.[citation needed] Gargan later founded "Throw the Hypocritical Rascals Out" (THRO), which Ross Perot supported.[citation needed]

Maya Lin, architect of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial received harassment from Perot after her ethnicity was revealed - he was known to have called her an "egg roll" after it was revealed that she was Asian.[15]

Perot did not support President George H. W. Bush and vigorously opposed the United States involvement in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War.[citation needed] He unsuccessfully urged Senators to vote against the war resolution, and began to consider his own presidential run.[citation needed]

1992 presidential candidacy

On February 20, 1992, he appeared on CNN's Larry King Live and announced his intention to run as an independent if his supporters could get his name on the ballot in all fifty states. With such declared policies as balancing the federal budget, firm pro-choice stance, expansion of the war on drugs, ending outsourcing of jobs, support for gun control, belief in protectionism on trade, advocating the Environmental Protection Agency and enacting electronic direct democracy via "electronic town halls," he became a potential candidate and soon polled roughly even with the two major party candidates.[citation needed]

Perot's candidacy received increasing media attention when the competitive phase of the primary season ended for the two major parties. With the insurgent candidacies of Republican Pat Buchanan and Democrat Jerry Brown winding down, Perot was the natural beneficiary of populist resentment toward establishment politicians. On May 25, 1992 he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine with the title "Waiting for Perot", an allusion to Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot.[16]

Several months before the Democratic and Republican conventions, Perot filled the vacuum of election news, as his supporters began petition drives to get him on the ballot in all fifty states. This sense of momentum was reinforced when Perot employed two savvy campaign managers in Democrat Hamilton Jordan and Republican Ed Rollins.[citation needed]

In July, while Perot was pondering whether to run for office, his supporters established a campaign organization United We Stand America. Perot was late in making formal policy proposals, but most of what he did call for were intended to reduce the deficit. He wanted a gasoline tax increase and some cutbacks of Social Security.[citation needed]

On July 11, while attending a NAACP meeting, Perot, in describing the criminality of certain populations, referred to them to the members as "your people", causing a negative reaction.[17]

By the summer Perot commanded a lead in the presidential race with thirty-nine percent of the vote,[18] but on July 16, Perot unexpectedly dropped out.[19] Perot eventually stated the reason was that he received threats that digitally altered photographs would be released by the Bush campaign to sabotage his daughter's wedding.[20] Regardless of the reasons for withdrawing, his reputation was badly damaged. Many of his supporters felt betrayed and public opinion polls would subsequently show a large negative view of Perot that was absent prior to his decision to end the campaign.[21]

In September he qualified for all fifty state ballots. On October 1, he announced his intention to reenter the presidential race. He said that Republican operatives had wanted to reveal compromising photographs of his daughter, which would disrupt her wedding, and he wanted to spare her from embarrassment. Scott Barnes, a private investigator and security consultant who had testified to that effect, later recanted his story. He revealed in 1997 that he had deceived Perot about the existence of the photographs, and that he had created the hoax with others who were not involved with any political campaign. Barnes was a Perot supporter, and believed that if it were revealed that Republicans were involved in dirty tricks, it would harm Bush's candidacy.[22]

He campaigned in 16 states and spent an estimated $65.4 million of his own money. Perot employed the innovative strategy of purchasing half-hour blocks of time on major networks for infomercial-type campaign advertisements; this advertising garnered more viewership than many sitcoms, with one Friday night program in October attracting 10.5 million viewers.[23]

Perot's running mate was retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a highly-decorated former Vietnam prisoner of war (POW). In December 1969 he organized and flew to North Vietnam in an attempt to deliver thirty tons of supplies to beleaguered American POWs in North Vietnam. Although North Vietnam blocked the flights, the effort was instrumental in bringing the plight of those POWs to the world's attention and their captors soon began treating them better.[6]

At one point in June, Perot led the polls with 39% (versus 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton). Just prior to the debates, Perot received 7-9% support in nationwide polls.[24] It is likely that the debates played a significant role in his ultimate receipt of 19% of the popular vote. Although his answers during the debates were often general, many Democrats and Republicans conceded that Perot won at least the first debate. In the debate he remarked: "Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There's a lot they didn't know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they'd draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won't hack it."[25]

Perot denounced Congress for its inaction in his speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 1992. Perot said:

This city has become a town filled with sound bites, shell games, handlers, media stuntmen who posture, create images, talk, shoot off Roman candles, but don't ever accomplish anything. We need deeds, not words, in this city.[26]

In the 1992 election, he received 18.9% of the popular vote, approximately 19,741,065 votes (but no electoral college votes), making him the most successful third-party presidential candidate in terms of the popular vote since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election. Unlike Perot, however, some other third party candidates since Roosevelt have won electoral college votes. (Strom Thurmond had thirty-nine in 1948, George Wallace had forty-six in 1968 and John Hospers won one in 1972). Compared with Thurmond and Wallace, who polled very strongly in a small number of states, Perot's vote was more evenly spread across the country. Perot managed to finish second in two states: In Maine, Perot received 30.44% of the vote to Bush's 30.39% (Clinton won Maine with 38.77%); In Utah, Perot received 27.34% of the vote to Clinton's 24.65% (Bush won Utah with 43.36%).

A detailed analysis of voting demographics revealed that Perot's support drew heavily from across the political spectrum, with 20% of his votes coming from self-described liberals, 27% from self-described conservatives, and 53% coming from self-described moderates. Economically, however, the majority of Perot voters (57%) were middle class, earning between $15,000 and $49,000 annually, with the bulk of the remainder drawing from the upper middle class (29% earning more than $50,000 annually).[27] Exit polls also showed that Ross Perot drew 38% of his vote from Bush, and 38% of his vote from Clinton, while the rest of his voters would have stayed home had he not been on the ballot.[28]

Based on his performance in the popular vote in 1992, Perot was entitled to receive federal election funding for 1996. Perot remained in the public eye after the election and championed opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), urging voters to listen for the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs heading south to Mexico should NAFTA be ratified.

Reform Party and 1996 presidential run

Perot tried to keep his movement alive through the mid-1990s, continuing to speak about the increasing national debt. He was a prominent campaigner against the North American Free Trade Agreement, and even debated Al Gore on the issue on Larry King Live. Perot's behavior during the debate was a source of mirth thereafter, including his repeated pleas to "let me finish" in his southern drawl. The debate was seen by many as effectively ending Perot’s political career.[29] Support for NAFTA went from 34% to 57%. Perot sponsored conferences that were attended by numerous high-profile politicians.

In 1995, he founded the Reform Party and won their nomination for the 1996 election. His running mate was Pat Choate. Because of the ballot access laws, he had to run as an Independent on many state ballots. Perot received eight percent of the popular vote in 1996, much less than in the 1992 race but still an unusually successful third-party showing by U.S. standards. He spent much less of his own money in this race than he had four years before, and also allowed other people to contribute to his campaign, unlike his prior race. One common explanation for the decline was Perot's exclusion from the presidential debates, based on the preferences of the Democratic and Republican party candidates (as described by George Farah in Open Debates).

Later activities

Perot attending the 2009 EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C.

Later in the 1990s, Perot's detractors accused him of not allowing the Reform Party to develop into a genuine national political party, but rather using it as a vehicle to promote himself. They cited as evidence the control of party offices by operatives from his presidential campaigns. Perot did not give an endorsement during Jesse Ventura's run for governor of Minnesota in the 1998 election, and this became suspicious to detractors when he made fun of Ventura at a conference after Ventura had a fall-out with the press. The party leadership grew in tighter opposition to groups supporting Ventura and Jack Gargan. Evidence of this was demonstrated when Gargan was officially removed as Reform Party Chairman by the Reform Party National Committee.

In the 2000 presidential election, Perot refused to become openly involved with the internal Reform Party dispute between supporters of Pat Buchanan and of John Hagelin. Perot was reportedly unhappy with what he saw as the disintegration of the party, as well as his own portrayal in the press; thus he chose to remain quiet. He appeared on Larry King Live four days before the election and endorsed George W. Bush for President. Despite his earlier opposition to NAFTA, Perot remained largely silent about expanded use of guest worker visas in the United States, with Buchanan supporters attributing this silence to his corporate reliance on foreign workers.[30] Some state parties have affiliated with the new (Buchananite) America First Party; others gave Ralph Nader their ballot lines in the 2004 presidential election.

Since then, Perot has been largely silent on political issues, refusing to answer most questions from the press. When interviewed, he usually remains on the subject of his business career and refuses to answer specific questions on politics, candidates, or his past activities.

The one exception to this came in 2005, when he was asked to testify before the Texas Legislature in support of proposals to extend technology to students, including making laptops available to them; additionally, changing the process of buying textbooks, by making electronic books (ebooks) available and by allowing schools to buy books at the local level instead of going through the state. In an April 2005 interview, Perot expressed concern about the state of progress on issues that he had raised in his presidential runs.[31]

In January 2008, Perot publicly came out against Republican candidate John McCain and endorsed Mitt Romney for President. He also announced that he would soon be launching a new website with updated economic graphs and charts.[32] In June 2008, the blog launched, focusing on entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security), the U. S. national debt and related issues.[33]

Family

Perot is married to Margot Birmingham; they have five children (Ross Jr., Nancy, Suzanne, Carolyn, and Katherine). As of 2007, the Perots have 15 grandchildren.

Honors

On April 22, 2009, Ross Perot was made a Honorary Green Beret at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center in Fayetteville, North Carolina, that also honored the OSS, Alamo Scouts and the First Special Service Force, elite World War Two units that were inducted into the "1st Special Forces" Regiment.

Mr. Perot was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1988.

On September 18, 2009, the Texarkana Independent School District named him (1947 graduate of Texas High School) as a 2009 Distinguished Alumnus.[34]

In May 2009, he was appointed an honorary chairman of The OSS Society.

On October 15, 2009, the United States Military Academy at West Point awarded him with the distinguished Sylvanus Thayer Award.[35]

In honor of his 80th birthday, the bridge connecting Walton and University drives in Texarkana, Texas, was named the H. Ross Perot Bridge.[36]

Electoral history

United States presidential election, 1992

United States presidential election, 1996

  • Bill Clinton/Al Gore (D) (Inc.) - 47,400,125 (49.2%) and 379 electoral votes (31 states and D.C. carried)
  • Bob Dole/Jack Kemp (R) - 39,198,755 (40.7%) and 159 electoral votes (19 states carried)
  • Ross Perot/Pat Choate (Ref.) - 8,085,402 (8.4%) and 0 electoral votes

Further reading

  • Thomas M. Defrank et al. Quest for the Presidency, 1992 Texas A&M University Press. 1994.
  • Mason, Todd (1990). Perot. Business One Irwin. ISBN 1-55623-236-5 An unauthorized biography by a longtime Perot watcher.
  • Doron P. Levin, Irreconcilable Differences: Ross Perot Versus General Motors (New York: Plume, 1990)
  • Thomas Moore, The GM System is Like a Blanket of Fog, Fortune, February 15, 1988
  • Posner, Gerald Citizen Perot: His Life and Times Random House. New York 1996
  • Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
  • Forbes 400
  • Rapoport, Ronald and Walter Stone. Three's a Crowd: The Dynamic of Third Parties, Ross Perot, and Republican Resurgence Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005.

References

  1. ^ "BOWIE COUNTY, TEXAS - BIRTHS 1930". Retrieved 2010-06-13.
  2. ^ "#85 Henry Ross Perot - The Forbes 400 Richest Americans 2009". Forbes.com. September 30 2009. Retrieved February 7 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  3. ^ "The Ancestors of Ross Perot". Wargs.com. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
  4. ^ Posner, Gerald (1996). Citizen Perot. New York City: Random House. p. 8.
  5. ^ "Texarkana Independent School District Names H. Ross Perot as 2009 Distinguished Alumni" (PDF). Texarkana Independent School District. 2009-09-17. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  6. ^ a b c Townley, Alvin. Legacy of Honor: The Values and Influence of America's Eagle Scouts. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 89–100, 108, 187, 194, 249, 260, 265. ISBN 0-312-36653-1. Retrieved 2006-12-29. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Ray, Mark (2007). "What It Means to Be a super duper rich person". Scouting Magazine. Boy Scouts of America. Retrieved 2007-01-05. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Sam Wyly, 1000 Dollars & an Idea, Publisher: Newmarket, ISBN 1557048037
  9. ^ Henry Moscow, "An Astonishment of New York Superlatives: Biggest, Smallest, Longest, Shortest, Oldest, First, Last, Most, Etc." New York Magazine vol. 7, no. 1 (31 December 1973/7 January 1974) p. 53.
  10. ^ Magna Carta Is Going on the Auction Block September 25, 2007
  11. ^ Dell Pays 68% Premium for Perot’s Health TechnologyBloomberg.com,September 22, 2009
  12. ^ a b c Patrick E. Tyler (1992-06-20). "Perot and Senators Seem Headed for a Fight on P.O.W.'s-M.I.A.'s". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  13. ^ a b c George J. Church (1992-06-29). "The Other Side of Perot". Time. Retrieved 2008-01-24.
  14. ^ Patrick E. Tyler (1992-06-05). "Perot to Testify in Senate on Americans Missing in Southeast Asia". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-01-24.
  15. ^ Frank H. Wu (2002). Yellow: Race In America Beyond Black and White. Basic Books. p. 95. ISBN 0465006396.
  16. ^ "Time Magazine cover: H. Ross Perot". 1992-05-25. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  17. ^ Applebome, Peter (1992=07-12). "THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Racial Politics; Perot Speech Gets Cool Reception at N.A.A.C.P." The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ Samuel James Eldersveld, Hanes Walton. "Political Parties in American Society". p.69.
  19. ^ UNDER THE BIG TOP -- THE OVERVIEW; PEROT QUITS RACE, LEAVING TWO-MAN FIELD; CLINTON VOWS CHANGE AND 'NEW COVENANT' AS HE AND BUSH COURT ABANDONED VOTERS,ROBIN TONER, NY Times, July 17, 1992
  20. ^ THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Overview; PEROT SAYS HE QUIT IN JULY TO THWART G.O.P. 'DIRTY TRICKS', Richard L. Berke, NY Times, October 26, 1992
  21. ^ "THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Ross Perot; Perot Says He May Rejoin Race To Publicize His Economic Plan", Richard L. Berke, NY Times, September 19, 1992
  22. ^ Barta, Carol (1997-03-28). "Ex-Perot aide says he set up '92 `dirty tricks', He says GOP did not tap campaign phones". Dallas Morning News.
  23. ^ THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Media; Perot's 30-Minute TV Ads Defy the Experts, Again, KOLBERT, ELIZABETH. New York Times. (Late Edition). New York, N.Y.: Oct 27, 1992. pg. A.19
  24. ^ THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: On the Trail; POLL GIVES PEROT A CLEAR LEAD. New York Times. New York, N.Y.: Jun 11, 1992. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7DB133EF932A25755C0A964958260
  25. ^ Sumner, Mark (2009-04-19). "All This Has Happened Before". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
  26. ^ Perot, Ross, James W. Robinson. Ross Perot speaks out: issue by issue, what he says about our nation : its problems and its promise. p 55. Prima Pub., 1992. ISBN 9781559582742.
  27. ^ Politics: Who Cares by Peirce Lewis, Casey McCracken, and Roger Hunt (American Demographics, October 1994, vol. 16, no. 10) p. 23. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/case/3pt/perot_vote.html
  28. ^ Holmes, Steven A. (November 5, 1992). "THE 1992 ELECTIONS: DISAPPOINTMENT -- NEWS ANALYSIS An Eccentric but No Joke; Perot's Strong Showing Raises Questions On What Might Have Been, and Might Be". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
  29. ^ Reaves, Jessica (2000-10-03). "Bush plays off expectations; Gore learns from mistakes". cnn.com. Retrieved 2008-08-14. Gore's decisive victory was the saving of NAFTA and the beginning of the end of Perot as even a semi-serious public figure {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  30. ^ [1][dead link]
  31. ^ "News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Opinion: Points". Dallasnews.com. 2005-04-23. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
  32. ^ January 16, 2008 (2008-01-16). "Ross Perot Slams McCain | Newsweek Voices - Jonathan Alter". Newsweek.com. Retrieved 2010-06-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ "perotcharts.com". perotcharts.com. 2009-07-02. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
  34. ^ Martin, Marie (September 19, 2009)."Perot receives TISD Distinguished Alumni Award". Texarkana Gazette. 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2010-06-09.
  35. ^ "List of Thayer Award Recipients". West Point AOG. 2009-10-10. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  36. ^ Martin, Marie (June 9, 2010)."Native Son gets birthday surprise". Texarkana Gazette. 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2010-06-09.

External links

  • Perot Charts; a blog launched June 2008 by Perot to examine different national issues with charts and graphs.
  • United We Stand, H. Ross Perot; text of the book published by Perot in 1992 to mark the launch of his Presidential campaign, complete with charts. The text is hosted by the site of the organization he created that year United We Stand America, as saved by The Internet Archive.
Party political offices
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Reform Party Presidential candidate
1996 (3rd)
Succeeded by

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