ustxtxb_obs_1992_08_07_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

MICHAEL ALEXANDER KLAN LITE IN HOUSTON Pg. 19 A JOURNAL OF FREE VOICES AUGUST 7, 1992 $1.75 POOT-NOMAtt POSTMOIrtIM BY THOMAS FERGUSON METEORIC IS THE adjective most often applied to Ross Perot’s whole career, so it was no surprise that when his undeclared presidential campaign cratered, it produced a blast on the scale of the Great Siberian Meteor Explosion of 1908. If 1992 were a normal year and Perot an ordinary candidate, a postmortem on his curious campaign would be a venture in history, not political science. But does anyone need reminding that this year is not normal? That not one, but four strikingly different candidates swept up from nowhere to seize center stage for varying periods of time over the last 18 months? Or and who would ever have imagined this? that a pharmaceutical manufacturer whose ties to a Democratic Presidential aspirant drew fire in the primaries abruptly became Prime Minister of Yugoslavia with the U.S. State Department’s Good House Keeping Seal of Approval? No, I am afraid, as the cities smolder and economic growth grinds almost to a halt amidst paralyzing budget and trade deficits, America’s long dreaded Night on Bald Mountain has begun. No matter who wins the Presidency, the hobgoblins are coming out. And more than one of these hobgoblins is likely to come slithering up from the smoking pit Perot left behind. Continued on pg. 4