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Henry Ross Perot (born June 27, 1930) is an American businessman from Texas, who
is best known for seeking the office of President of the United States in 1992 and
1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962 and later sold the
company to General Motors and founded Perot Systems.
With an estimated net worth of around $4.4 billion as of 2007, he is ranked by
Forbes as the 57th-richest person in America.
 Early
life
Perot was born in Texarkana, Texas, to Luly Maye Perot (nee Ray) and Gabriel Ross
Perot. His father was a cotton picker. Perot made Eagle Scout in 1943 and is a
recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. The local Boy Scouts of America
council office in his hometown of Texarkana is named in his honor. His son and two
of his grandsons are Eagle Scouts.
Perot entered the United States Naval Academy in 1949 and helped establish its
honor system. By the time he graduated in 1953 he was president of his class and
battalion commander. By late 1954, Perot was made a lieutenant, junior grade.
However, in 1955, 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.
Perot married Margot Birmingham of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1956. Over the
years they had five children (Ross Jr., Nancy, Suzanne, Carolyn, and Katherine). As
of 2007, the Perots have fifteen grandchildren.
Business
career
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, 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 88
times before he got 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 shot up 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 EDS for $2.4 billion.
Just prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the government of Iran imprisoned two of
his employees in a contract dispute. Perot organized and sponsored a successful
rescue. The rescue team was led by retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Arthur
D. ('Bull') Simons. When the team couldn't 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. (See also Iran hostage
crisis.)
In 1984, Perot bought a very early copy of the Magna Carta, one of only a few to
leave the United Kingdom. It is now on loan to the National Archives in Washington,
D.C., where it is on display with the Declaration of Independence and the United
States Constitution. As of September 25, 2007, The New York Times reports that the
Perot Foundation, which loaned the document, terminated the loan, and that
Sotheby's will auction off the document in December 2007.
Ross Perot put up the majority of the venture capital for Steve Jobs's NeXT
computer project in 1986. Also in 1986, after heavy criticism of General Motors,
which had purchased EDS, he was bought out for $700 million. In 1988, he founded
Perot Systems Corporation, Inc. in Plano, Texas. His son, H. Ross Perot, Jr.,
eventually succeeded him as CEO. Today, H. Ross Sr. serves as Chairman Emeritus,
and Ross Jr. serves as Chairman.
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
in the state. Perot led the Texas War on Drugs Committee that proposed five laws,
all of which were passed by the legislature.
In 1982, he was called upon again by Clements to help improve the quality of the
states' public education, and ended up leading the effort ("Select Committee on
Education") to reform the school system, which resulted in major legislative
changes. The best known of Perot's proposals which 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 on sports teams. 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. Another key
reform measure was a call for teacher competency testing, which was strongly
opposed by the teachers unions in Texas.
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. Perot asserted that the United States "had grown arrogant and
complacent after the War (World War II)" and was no longer the world's greatest
nation. Instead of looking into what was to come, he argued, America was
"daydreaming of our past while the rest of the world was building its future." 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?
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. Gargan later founded
"Throw the Rascals Out", which Ross Perot supported.
Perot did not support President George H. W. Bush and vigorously opposed the United
States involvement in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War. He urged Senators to vote
against the war resolution and began considering a Presidential run.
1992 presidential candidacy
On February 20, 1992, he appeared on CNN's Larry King Live and announced his
intention to run if his supporters could get his name on the ballot in all 50
states. With such declared policies as balancing the federal budget, firm
pro-choice stance, expansion of the war on drugs, ending outsourcing of jobs,
opposition to gun control, belief in protectionism on trade, his support of 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.
Perot's candidacy received increasing media attention when the competitive phase of
the primary season ended for the two major parties. President George H.W. Bush was
losing support, and Democratic nominee Bill Clinton was still suffering from the
numerous scandal allegations made in the previous months. 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.
With several months to go until 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 50 states. This sense of momentum was reinforced when
Perot hired two savvy campaign managers in Democrat Hamilton Jordan and Republican
Ed Rollins.
Accompanying the surge in support for Perot was increased scrutiny of his
background. Reports surfaced of Perot hiring private investigators to obtain
personal information about business and political adversaries. His temperament was
brought into question by some who claimed that he exhibited irritability and an
authoritarian management style. Around the same time, Perot was criticized for a
remark made during a speech at the NAACP convention. Perot was sympathizing with
the plight of African Americans during tough economic times, but referred to his
audience as "you people", a phrase that was loudly objected to by some members of
the audience, and deemed insensitive by the media.
These developments had an adverse impact on Perot's campaign and his approval
rating in opinion polls was no longer rising. On July 16, 1992, Perot reconsidered
running for the presidency, even if he was not placed on all 50 state ballots. At
that time he was only on 24 state ballots. He was encouraged by the selection of
the Democratic party ticket of Bill Clinton and Al Gore at the Democratic National
Convention.
Nevertheless, in September he qualified for all 50 state ballots. On October 1, he
announced his intention to start running again. He explained his earlier withdrawal
by claiming that Republican operatives had attempted to disrupt his daughter's
wedding, and he wanted to spare her from embarrassment. 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 ads; these ads garnered more viewership than many
sitcoms, with one Friday night program in October attracting 10.5 million
viewers.
Perot's running mate was retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a well-respected
former Vietnam prisoner of war (POW). Perot was a long-time supporter of POWs. In
December 1969 he organized and flew to North Vietnam in an attempt to deliver
30-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.
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. 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 debate he is noted to have said: "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."
Perot denounced Congress (for its inaction) in ways that displayed his contempt for
the Washington establishment. Washington, Perot said,
… 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.
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.
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
Independent presidential candidate in terms of the popular vote since Theodore
Roosevelt in the 1912 election. 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%).
According to Ronald Rapoport and Walter Stone (2005), Perot's appeal came from two
sources. First was his outsider, crusading zeal that made the major parties seem
reactionary. Second, he adopted specific positions that had been abandoned by both
parties — he was nationalistic and isolationist; he was conservative in social
policy. He opposed free trade. He was above all a crusader for a balanced budget,
as he warned of the horrors of the national debt.
A detailed analysis of the 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 over $50,000
annually).
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 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 in the middle 1990s, continuing to speak
about the increasing national debt. He was a prominent campaigner against the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and even debated Al Gore on the issue on
Larry King Live: what was then the largest audience ever to watch a cable program
tuned in to the debate. 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. Support
for NAFTA went from 34% to 57%. The following week, NAFTA passed the House, with
some hesitant members of Congress saying the Perot debate helped make a vote for
the bill more popular. Perot sponsored conferences which were attended by numerous
high-profile politicians.
In 1995, he founded the Reform Party and won their nomination for the 1996
election. Because of the ballot access laws he had to run as an Independent on many
state ballots. Perot received just 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). In 1996 his
opponents were U.S. Senator Bob Dole (Republican) and President Bill Clinton
(Democrat).
Later
activities
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 keeping it a movement to support him, as people close to
Perot's electoral campaign had still been in party offices because the
majority of Reform Party members had continued to elect them in party offices.
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. Reasons for this were demonstrated when Jack 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 in the
dispute inside the Reform Party between supporters of Pat Buchanan and of John
Hagelin. Perot was reportedly unhappy with how the party was disintegrating, and
how he was being portrayed in the press, and chose to remain quiet on the election
at that time. 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. Eventually, Perot ended all ties between himself and
the Reform Party, which was largely defunct in most states and has filed a RICO
lawsuit against another branch of the Reform Party. (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 about politics from the press. Whenever a paper has secured an
interview with him he usually remains on the subject of his business career and
refuses to answer the more specific questions on politics, candidates, or his past
activities.
The one break from this has been in 2005 when he was asked to testify before the
Texas legislature about proposals to extend technology to students, through making
laptops available; and changing the process of buying books, through making
electronic books available and allowing schools to buy books at the local level
instead of going through the state. Perot promoted the legislation. In an April
2005 interview, Perot expresses concern about the state of progress on issues he
had raised in his presidential runs.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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H. Ross
Perot - Generator - Biography
