I agree re: those who vote for him.
But Perot may have had his own motives.
Apparently one of the reasons Hillary and company tried for so long and hard to keep secret the names of those on her health care task force was that Perot was among the names.
Here's the story (believe it or not!):
Clinton and Perot struck deal to oust Bush in '92
Documents were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealing that "Perot played a large hand in first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton's efforts to craft the ill-fated health-reform bill" and added that "not one but two of Perot's companies were earmarked ... to play
mammoth roles in the health-care industry."
"Science fiction," Mr. Perot tells us. "It would make a good comedy show." Apart from stating that Mr. Perot advised then-candidate
Clinton, Mr. Carpozi also quoted one source as saying that the two men spoke either by telephone or face-to-face "at least 50 times" from
September 1991 until just before the November 1992 election..
President Bill Clinton and Ross Perot struck a deal in 1991 that initiated the billionaire industrialist's candidacy as a third party spoiler to
help the then-Arkansas governor unseat incumbent President George Bush. In turn, Clinton agreed that his first act as occupant of the Oval
Office would be to reform the nation's health care system with massive changes to provide health insurance for all Americans furnished by
government controlled "health alliances."
That quid pro quo was orchestrated by Clinton and Perot to open the floodgates to a multi-billion-dollar bonanza payoff for the third party
candidate's already lucrative Dallas-based International Health Delivery System. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information
Act reveal that Perot played a large hand in First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's efforts to craft the ill-fated health reform bill, which turned
Clinton's first year in office into a debacle. Perot's name appears prominently on the advisory board for Hillary's now defunct task force,
according to a group of doctors who procured the papers through the FOIA. Even more significantly - if not alarmingly - not one but two of
Perot's companies were earmarked in Mrs. Clinton's "working papers" to play mammoth roles in the health-care industry. Besides his
International Health Delivery System, a second firm, Electronic Data System, operating under the umbrella of the parent company, The Perot
Group, also stood to make out like a bandit with a lion's share of the nationwide computerized medical billing-data business. The doctors
who obtained Mrs. Clinton's records shaped a large body of dissidents in the medical field protesting the secrecy Mrs. Clinton imposed on
her task force of 500 anonymous persons, while they went about drafting health-care reform behind closed doors for nearly all of 1993.
In the unearthing that caused Perot's name to pop up in the first lady's papers, curiosity was aroused as to why the Texas billionaire would
serve in an advisory capacity for a president whom he opposed at the polls. Neither Perot nor Clinton ever publicly acknowledged that they
knew each other, or had ever spoken prior to their joint appearances on the stages of the debates with President George Bush during the '92
campaign. The link establishing Perot's connection to the president's wife led this reporter to Little Rock for an encounter with Larry
Nichols, a former marketing manager of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.
Nichols was fired by Clinton in 1989, after the aide wondered aloud about what was happening to a slush fund set up with $200 million of
taxpayer dollars that the governor controlled. Nichols claimed Clinton was glomming money to finance his sexual escapades.
A gadfly to Clinton long before he occupied the Oval Office, Nichols, 47, established the president's connection with Perot by citing
conversations he had with Larry G. Patterson, a former Arkansas State Police trooper who served as Clinton's personal bodyguard when
Clinton was governor. "Until I had just recently spoken with Patterson," Nichols said, "I only suspected that Clinton and Perot were cozy
with each other. I had heard some talk about a relationship they had, but there was nothing I could prove.
"Patterson put everything in perspective and it made great sense to me. He told me that Clinton and Perot met or talked to each other on the
phone or face to face at least 50 times from late September of '91 until just before the November election the following year. "Clinton met
Perot in Dallas, in Little Rock, and other locales. Their get-togethers were clandestine. So far as Patterson could say, they were in each
other's company by themselves, so that's why he believed the story never got out." Patterson, according to Nichols, said that Clinton
dropped by to see Perot "whenever he went to Dallas for some love-making with Gennifer Flowers," his longtime paramour.
"Patterson can also vouch for the fact that most times Clinton spoke on the phone from his office in the governor's mansion to Perot in
Dallas," Nichols continued, "But after the '92 Democratic convention in New York, which made Clinton the party's nominee, they met and
spoke much more frequently. "Even after Perot dropped out of the race, Clinton continued to talk to him just about as often as before. But
when he returned to the race, Clinton was talking to him three and four times a day, right up until the election." Nichols said Patterson
believes that all communication between Clinton and Perot apparently ceased after the election. Patterson's duties as Clinton's bodyguard
diminished appreciably after the election. At that time the Secret Service took full charge of protecting the president-elect, although he
continued to occupy the governor's mansion in Little Rock until the inaugural.
How much of Perot's ear Clinton has today is open to speculation, following the recommendation by the non-partisan Commission on
Presidential Debates to exclude Perot from the talkfests because he has no chance of winning the election. While Republican candidate Bob
Dole applauded the commission's verdict, Clinton expressed regret, saying, "I enjoyed having him in there in 1992."
Three other sources, all former activists in '92's United We Stand Party (now the Reform Party) said essentially what Patterson was quoted
as having told Nichols - that should Perot succeed in his "spoiler's" role, Clinton would make health-reform his top priority, and put the first
lady in charge of shaping the plan. Mrs. Carol Baker, of Hot Springs, Ark.; Lawrence Way, of Middletown, Md.; and Mrs. Pat Owens of E.
Troy, Wis.; said they were aware of Perot's doings with Clinton. Way and Mrs. Owens have suits pending against Perot in their respective
states for "wrongs" and violation of their privacy they say he and his aides committed. It is a familiar plaint - that Perot "spied" on them
while they worked in his '92 campaign, and pried into their finances and credit reports. Patterson did not respond to this reporter's request
for an interview. He is reportedly keeping a low public profile -- some say he fears for his life - since going public in January 1994 with
details of Clinton's sexual encounters with at least a half-dozen identified women while he was governor.
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