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| Mouth-Off Main PageRollins says Perot was a fool for saying, "I’ve know real men who have been in real wars . . . political campaigns are kid stuff." Rollins must be a real wimp if he thinks Perot’s political experiences have been worse than a real war.
Rollins criticizes Perot’s campaign strategy. "He considered campaign necessities like direct mail, advertising, and television pointless extravagances, yet he’d spend hundreds of thousands on offices and computers and electronic gadgets that weren’t really useful." Perot knew enough about computers and electronics to earn two billion dollars in the computer industry, yet Rollins criticizes him for the computers and electronics he invests in. Meanwhile Rollins had run despicable campaigns for Bush (Willie Horton) and Christie Todd Whitman (supposedly paid African Americans not to vote), yet he criticizes Perot’s revolutionary campaign strategy which won him 19% of the vote.
Perot made it perfectly clear to everyone that his campaign was not about Perot; it was about the volunteers getting a voice in the election process. Despite Perot’s wishes, Rollins devised a campaign strategy that was all about promoting Perot’s personality. Rollins wanted the campaign to be all about Perot’s humanitarianism, can-do spirit, and outsider status rather than the issues the volunteers were interested in.
There are so many little things that endear Perot to his supporters but drove Rollins nuts. Rather than analyze the 600 page books Rollins brought Perot, Perot demanded all pertinent information be brought to him on one page. Rather than spend millions on polls, Perot suggested they read the polls published in newspapers. Perot suggested Cokie Roberts for VP, but according to political professionals like Rollins, that was a silly choice. Perot wanted to run a campaign starting in September (like the reform party will do in 1996), but Rollins demanded Perot campaign from April to November. Rather than spend millions on typical commercials, Perot wanted to spend only a couple thousand filming volunteers or showing charts. Rollins just couldn’t deal with Perot’s untraditional methods.
Rollins may have been correct in assessing that to win in 1992 you needed to be the candidate of hope, but the Reform movement is not about Hope. Yes, I Hope the debt disappears and the government gets its act together all by itself, but most Reform Party people believe that we need real structural change. Hope is nice, but won’t get the job done.
Rollins goes on to profess that Perot is a bad autocratic manager, but I find it hard to believe Perot could make 2 billion dollars without knowing how to manage large organizations. I worked for the government and have never experienced a more stifling, bureaucratic, top-down managed organization in my life. A business genius like Perot would certainly improve the deplorable ineffecient management practices in our Federal government.
Clinton and Dole are arguing about abortion, cigarettes, airplanes, Hollywood, and other non-Federal Government issues. Fortunately the Reform Party will enter the campaign and immediately shift the focus to campaign finance reform, medicare, medicaid, social security, term limits, and lobbying. The old politicians who built and love our current mess don’t have the guts or vision for reform. They feel threatened by Perot and consequently try to destroy him. Fortunately, most attempts to discredit Perot, like Rollin’s book, actually do more to show what a visionary Perot really is.
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