PERSPECTIVES ON ROSS PEROT : He Gave the System a Good Shaking : How has the would-be third candidate’s presence in--and now absence from--the race affected our political life?
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He was the first to realize and take advantage of three things happening in American politics. The first is the weakening, if not the collapse, of the two-party system.
Second, he was the first postmodern candidate because his candidacy was born on cable TV and nurtured on soft-news talk shows. And in some respects, it had more in common with Jimmy Swaggert and Oral Roberts rather than Bush and Clinton. People turned to him for salvation--on cable TV.
Third is his main program, the electronic town hall. His one novel idea, and he’s right about it.
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