DBWI: I need some help on my President Perot research.

I'm in HI 569, Historical methods, and I need to pass to finish my Bachelors. The main assignment is a 25 page research paper, and I chose to cover the Perot presidency.
I know he was a polarizing President, and I know he shut down the government on three occasions, and survived two impeachments, but what did he do that was positive?
How high would the deficit have risen without him? Ten trillion? ( I exaggerate, that would be almost impossible, but you get my point.)
Any ideas?
 
I'm in HI 569, Historical methods, and I need to pass to finish my Bachelors. The main assignment is a 25 page research paper, and I chose to cover the Perot presidency.
I know he was a polarizing President, and I know he shut down the government on three occasions, and survived two impeachments, but what did he do that was positive?
How high would the deficit have risen without him? Ten trillion? ( I exaggerate, that would be almost impossible, but you get my point.)
Any ideas?

Well, he did manage to maintain the US' position as the world's number one manufacturer, consistently beating down efforts to create a North American Free Trade Agreement. Granted, even that was controversial, and led to his first impeachment. My understanding was that he signed an executive order to get around the fact that Congress overrode his veto, and that was ruled unconstitutional and got him in a ton of hot water. Anyway, that was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread.
 
For a positive, I'd say the War on Terror. Perot was the one behind the buildup on special operations and paramilitary units tied to the intelligence organizations - that was almost a third article of impeachment. But, look at the results - lots of dead terrorists, and nobody wants to harbor them because we still have the military technology to crack a keg of whupa$$ anywhere in the world within 36 hours from a standing start.

As to the deficit - the budget wars with Congress hurt the economy at first, but everybody made a few adjustments to having less spending, and the recession in '94 bottomed out pretty quickly. I don't think Clinton would have done any worse.
 
If I take a trip down to the Perot Library is there anything specific I should ask about?
 
You could definitely ask them about his relationship with his subordinates, which was often prickly (resulting in Stockdale's replacement by Kemp for the 1996 election), and probably cost him his chance for re-election Maybe ask how a Perot II administration would have differed from the Gramm administration.
 
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