Gene Giannotta
Ross Perot
Perot was a prominent third-party presidential spoiler in the 1990s, most famously hampering George H.W. Bush’s re-election bid in 1992. But in many ways he was a forerunner to Trump’s flirtation with politics and current campaign for the presidency. Perot made his fortune as the founder of Electronic Data Systems, which he built after quitting his sales job at IBM and later sold to GM in 1984 for $1.5 billion. He also founded Perot Systems, which was sold to Dell for almost $4 billion in 2009. His political platform rested on appeals to reform the tax system, move toward direct democracy (his “electronic town hall” idea was a key plank), and criticisms of outsourcing. But, foreshadowing the reception Donald Trump has received so far in 2015, Perot was not welcomed with open arms. Peter Elkind, editor of the Dallas Observer called Perot “the most single-minded man on the face of the earth, and he seems to have decided he wants to be President of this country.” And a young Karl Rove told the New York Times that “Ross Perot is the untested wild man, and while that may be attractive here at the beginning, I’m not sure it will be attractive at the end.”
