Ross Perot

He made Eagle Scout in 13 months. Henry Ross Perot was born in Texarkana, Texas on June 27, 1930, son of a cotton broker, and delivered the Texarkana Gazette from the age of eight. He entered the Naval Academy in 1949, helped write its honor system, and served on destroyers and a carrier from 1953 to 1957 — where being issued several pairs of shoes at once struck him as his first look at government waste. He had owned one pair at a time. Then he sold computers for IBM in Dallas, filled a full year's sales quota in two weeks, and watched his proposals for a data-services business go nowhere with his supervisors. He left in 1962 to build it himself.

Electronic Data Systems was turned down 77 times before it landed a contract, then made him one of the richest men in America computerizing Medicare claims for state governments. The 1968 offering carried the stock from 16 dollars to 160 in days. He sold EDS to General Motors in 1984 for 2.4 billion, joined its board, said in public that GM was run by people who could not build a car, and let it buy him out in 1986 for roughly 700 million. Then he founded Perot Systems and did it again. On February 20, 1992 he told Larry King he would run if volunteers put him on all 50 ballots. They did. He bought half-hour blocks of network time to explain the deficit with charts, and took 18.9 percent of the vote and no electors.

The July withdrawal is the part that never went away. He quit the 1992 race in the middle of the Democratic convention, saying he did not want to throw the election into the House. In October, back in the race, he told 60 Minutes the real reason had been Republican operatives who he said planned to wreck his daughter's wedding with a doctored photograph. He never produced evidence. Meanwhile the running mate he had named as a placeholder, Admiral James Stockdale, went into the vice-presidential debate barely briefed and opened by asking who he was and why he was there — a decorated prisoner of war turned into a punchline. A year later Perot debated Al Gore on NAFTA before 16 million viewers, kept pleading let me finish, and lost. Support for the agreement went from 34 percent to 57.

He founded the Reform Party in 1995, ran again in 1996, was shut out of the debates and took 8 percent. Then he stopped. He had bought one of the few copies of Magna Carta outside Britain and lent it to the National Archives for 23 years, and had put over 20 million dollars into Steve Jobs's NeXT after Apple pushed him out. He died of leukemia in Dallas on July 9, 2019, worth 4.1 billion. What gets argued now is not the man but the opening he found: deficit politics, hostility to trade deals, a billionaire outsider buying his way onto the ballot and being taken seriously. The Reform Party nominated Pat Buchanan in 2000. Perot endorsed Bush.

Ross Perot's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Electronic Data Systems company
  Sold to General Motors in 1984 for 2.4 billion dollars 1962
• The Tehran rescue mission
  He hired Colonel Arthur Bull Simons to get two EDS employees out of an Iranian prison 1979
• Texas school reform, House Bill 72 law
  He chaired the committee behind the no pass, no play rule 1984
• Perot Systems company
  Sold to Dell in 2009 for 3.9 billion dollars 1988
• The 1992 infomercials television
  Half-hour network buys explaining the deficit with charts. One drew 10.5 million viewers 1992
• The Reform Party company
  Founded to give the 1992 vote somewhere to go 1995

• June 27, 1930 aged 0 Born in Texarkana, Texas, son of a cotton broker He had a newspaper route at eight and made Eagle Scout in 13 months.
• 1953 aged ~23 Graduates from the Naval Academy, having helped write its honor system He served on destroyers and a carrier until 1957.
• 1962 aged ~32 Leaves IBM and founds Electronic Data Systems in Dallas He was turned down 77 times before the first contract.
• 1968 aged ~38 EDS goes public and the stock runs from 16 dollars to 160 in days Fortune called him the fastest, richest Texan.
• February 1979 aged 48 Two EDS employees get out of Iran after a private rescue operation The team he hired waited for revolutionaries to storm the prison, then drove the men to Turkey.
• February 20, 1992 aged 61 Says on Larry King Live that he will run if volunteers get him on 50 ballots
• October 15, 1992 aged 62 Warns in the Richmond debate of a giant sucking sound of jobs going to Mexico He had quit the race in July and re-entered on October 1.
• November 3, 1992 aged 62 Takes 18.9 percent of the popular vote and no electoral votes The best third-party showing by vote share since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
• July 9, 2019 aged 89 Dies of leukemia in Dallas at 89

• George H. W. Bush 1924–2018
  41st president who managed the end of the Cold War and assembled the coalition for the Persian Gulf War. ran against
• Al Gore b. 1948
  Vice president and 2000 presidential candidate who became a leading advocate for climate policy. debated over NAFTA
• Steve Jobs 1955–2011
  Co-founder of Apple who revolutionized personal computing, music, and mobile communications. invested in
• Theodore Roosevelt 1858–1919
  26th President known for progressive reforms, conservation efforts, and assertive foreign policy. the last outsider to do better