DBWI: Ross Perot Runs for President in '92?

Okay, I know the idea sounds odd, but it actually could have happened. I was reading up on American Politics in the 90's, and it truns out that Texan Billionaire Ross Perot was considering to run for President in 1992 as an independent. So what would have happened if he actually did?

Would Perot have been able to make much of an impact on the election, or would he have largely been ignored? Is it possible he could change the outcome, if not win? Let's not forget that even though Bush is seen in a mostly positive light these days, the election between him and Clinton was pretty close, certainly not the size of his victory over Dukakis in '88. Might we have President Clinton in the TL?

Hey, is it even possible that Perot could win the presidency? For starters, who might his running mate be?
 
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!?! I've said over and over again that this is one of my FAVORITE PODs. Perot might very well have won, and I personally think it would have been excellent.:D
 
I would think that Perot hurts Bush more than he does Clinton; Perot in the race probably gives Clinton a "mandate" instead of a replay of 1960.
 
Ummmm... Perot did run for the Presidency in 1992...

He actually lead in the polls before dropping out and then re-entering. His choice of runningmate that year was Admiral James Stockdale, a rather unfortunate choice. "WHO AM I?! WHY AM I HERE?!"

If Perot had not dropped out, he might take a few states, but Americans are notoriously fickle about third parties. I actually think he hurts both Bush and Clinton about evenly as his policies minced both up together fairly well into one big centrist balloon.

His personality is utterly unsuited however. He had a colossal ego and an even bigger temperment. It was his way or the highway. Not a recipe for a successful President. (Maybe a successful businessperson, but not a President)
 
Ummmm... Perot did run for the Presidency in 1992...

He actually lead in the polls before dropping out and then re-entering. His choice of runningmate that year was Admiral James Stockdale, a rather unfortunate choice. "WHO AM I?! WHY AM I HERE?!"

If Perot had not dropped out, he might take a few states, but Americans are notoriously fickle about third parties. I actually think he hurts both Bush and Clinton about evenly as his policies minced both up together fairly well into one big centrist balloon.

His personality is utterly unsuited however. He had a colossal ego and an even bigger temperment. It was his way or the highway. Not a recipe for a successful President. (Maybe a successful businessperson, but not a President)


OCC: This is a DBWI, in which we post as if we existed in an alternate world where Perot did not run. Essentially it's supposed to be like a discussion from an alternate timeline. For example, going off of your interesting British political timeline, I could post a DBWI asking "What if Margaret Thatcher/The Conservative Party had won in 1983" Obviously, the original poster is aware that Perot ran. I hope I'm not coming across as mean, I just think you may not understand the terminology or otherwise you missed the fact that this was a DBWI.
 
OCC: This is a DBWI, in which we post as if we existed in an alternate world where Perot did not run. Essentially it's supposed to be like a discussion from an alternate timeline. For example, going off of your interesting British political timeline, I could post a DBWI asking "What if Margaret Thatcher/The Conservative Party had won in 1983" Obviously, the original poster is aware that Perot ran. I hope I'm not coming across as mean, I just think you may not understand the terminology or otherwise you missed the fact that this was a DBWI.

I'll be honest when I say I don't understand all the abbreviations on the forum. I just happened to look and it said "Ross Perot was considering a run" I thought only to correct an error which I thought he made, which appearantly was my error.
 
Hey, is it even possible that Perot could win the presidency? For starters, who might his running mate be?

If he even thought he had a chance, and wasn't just doing this to 'make a point', he'd have to pick a pretty good running mate. Probably someone with experience in politics, to avoid the ticket looking like the 'Big Corporate' team.

Otherwise, I don't think he could have much of a chance. All-in-all, he would look like big business trying to take over the government. It would probably look just like the election of '96, when Nader took a few votes away from Gore. In other words, Bush would still win, just with a narrower victory.
 
Perot is an enigmatic figure... on the one hand he's a complete outsider with 3 billion dollars at the time and Bush was getting lambasted over the big "Read My Lips: No New Taxes" debacle which imo could have cost him the campaign if the economy hadn't been improving late in the year. Clinton got it to 3% of the popular vote and .2% in CA, .5% in PA and .9% in OH as well as getting within 2% of victory in 10 other states. Perot would be going after Bush before Clinton simply because he's the incumbent and the exit polls showed a LOT of wavering from people looking for a 'change' from both Reps and Dems.

The Nader comparison isn't close to Perot since Nader has 0 support from both fiscal and social conservatives. Perot is a much more moderate figure who only falls down on fiscal liberalism and most Americans don't identify themselves as such.

OTOH of course he is a big businessman which is hard to get over if you aren't running as a Rep and he also needs name and issue recognition which means he can't just be a money man he also has to be a showman. I think he'd have to have something to launch his campaign on like being the Mayor of NYC aka Mike Bloomberg. President Bloomberg took over from Rudy's successful stewardship and made NYC even more successful even after the tragedy of the Dec 6, 2002 terrorist attacks and the chaos that followed...

ooc: The butterflies of a Bush 92 win are pretty big. OBL still gets a group together for an air attack but they have to commit it in a day of high winds and bad weather and thus both planes miss the twins, one crashes just south of Times Square killing 560 and the other clips the North tower and crashes on top of One Liberty Plaza. The Washington attacks are first and worse with one plane hitting the Capitol when both houses of Congress in session, 70% of the legislature is killed along with 2300 others while the hijackers of the fourth plane start late and are mobbed after word of the DC strikes gets out, two are still alive when the plane lands...
 
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