Editorials
Friday, July 12, 1996
Perot could scramble
presidential election
HE'S back. Ross Perot, who scrambled the 1992 presidential election, says he'll run for president if his Reform Party wants him to. And there's little doubt of that, considering that the party was created by Perot. Former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm, who had announced he would seek the party's nomination, doesn't have a prayer of beating Perot in this arena.
But the eccentric billionaire's weird behavior the last time around should have convinced most Americans that this guy has no business in the presidency - or any other elective office, for that matter. For all his talk about how easy it would be to fix the budget deficit, Perot hasn't a clue. Sure, it's just a matter of balancing income and expenditures, but achieving that is anything but simple when you're talking about the federal budget.
Perot's solution to the campaign spending problem is unique - he foots the bill himself. He spent $60 million of his own money in 1992, and there is plenty more where that came from. But most candidates aren't billionaires.
Perot's bizarre claim of a Republican plot to disrupt his daughter's wedding - his explanation for his temporary withdrawal from the presidential race - revealed him as a raging paranoid. Later Vice President Al Gore reduced him to blustering incoherence in demolishing his uninformed arguments against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Perot got back into the race in time to horn in on the nationally televised presidential debates between Bill Clinton and George Bush, and the exposure helped him win 19 percent of the popular vote, the largest share for any independent candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
It would be astonishing if he could repeat that achievement, but if he did it could extinguish Bob Dole's faint hopes of overtaking Clinton. Dole quickly commented that he hoped Perot wouldn't run. At the White House, a Clinton spokesman said the president hadn't welcomed Perot into the race, being "otherwise occupied." Translation: he couldn't be bothered.
If Perot goes ahead with his candidacy, it will spell mischief. It is impossible to take him seriously as a potential president. The question is how much mischief will he create; the hope is not much.
Other editorials in brief:
Repairing the schools
IF any public service should be the responsibility of local government - in Hawaii's case, state government - it should be the construction and maintenance of the public schools. President Clinton proposes to bring the federal government into the picture by offering interest subsidies of as much as 50 percent for school renovation and replacement. Ideally Washington should stay out of such matters, but it subsidizes many less important programs than fixing up the schools. This is a way to make a difference where it counts.
Northern Ireland
HOPES for peace in Northern Ireland have been reduced to a glimmer by the violent activities of both Catholic and Protestant militants, and then by a Belfast police chief's decision to cave in to mob rule. The Ulster government's handling of conflicts surrounding an annual Protestant celebration may have caused irreparable harm to the peace process.
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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor