What appeals to Perot voters? Are there any on DU?

[fujiyama]

I'm curious if there are any Perot voters on DU. He was a crazy candidate and he was a bit of a quack, but he appealed to a lot of Americans, garnering almost 20% of the national vote in '92. That too, he ended up beating major party candidates in several states, beating Clinton in Utah, and Bush in Maine. Arguably he tilted several states to Clinton's favor.

What appeals to these voters? Was is the same that drove people to vote for Nader in that he was a third party candidate and that was exciting? Nader obviously didn't have much luck with these people, considering he only got 2.7% compared to Perot's 18.9% and 8.4%. Was it his insistance on balanced budgets (I remember those charts and infomercials)? Did most of those people end up in the Bush camp?

Perot wasn't necessarily very conservative. He was pro choice and pro gun control as well to some extent. He opposed NAFTA...Did that have a lot to do with his appeal?

The reason I ask all this is because I was young at the time and while I paid more attention to that election than many my age pay attention to this one, there are certain things I really don't remember. However, I do remember a general displeasure with the way things were going. I watched the debates and remember the Bush looking at his watch, and various other things...

[quispquake]

1. Actually, he WON Maine...

Not just beating Bush, but Clinton too...

We're sorta eccentric up here :) (and no, I didn't vote for him!!!)

[fujiyama]

3. Nope

According to Dave Leip's US Election Atlas (www.uselectionatlas.org), Clinton won the state.

William Clinton Albert Gore Jr. Democratic 263,420 38.77% 4
H. Ross Perot James Stockdale Independent 206,820 30.44% 0
George Bush J. Danforth Quayle Republican 206,504 30.39% 0

But coming in second as a third party candidate is very impressive. I know that Maine has a very independant streak though. I heard that a third of the electorate are independants.

[TheRovingGourmet]

2. I know a lot of people that voted for him. He did appeal to

those voters that want to hear a lot of substance coming from a candidate for office. His constant economic talk was boring but he brought up a lot of good points and helped to slightly steer the debates towards a more detailed discussion of the issues.

[PsN2Wind]

4. I voted for him

because I thought it might be, and probably was, the only way to make the two major partys accountable to the people rather than the corporations. Thanks to those two major partys we have NAFTA, WTO, out-sourcing, off-shoring etc.
There will be the Perot haters to show up soon and call him a flake. Why?, because he said the Bush's threatened his daughters wedding and he dropped from the race for a time. All those Perot haters know the Bush family would not do something so heinous.

[Bandit]

5. I didn't vote for him bur believe completely in his message

He was very much upset over the debt and deficit and wanted fiscal sanity. I believe that is the way to solve most problems facing America today. We need to free up our money. We are now spending more in interest on the debt than we are for National Defense, and that is with interest rates the lowest in over half a century. What happens when they go up? That is unsustainable and we need to get our financial affairs in order. I believe this is the greatest single issue facing America today.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

6. That's a good question.

I'm from Maine too. I never really understood why the man was popular in Maine. I was in junior high at the time. I remember Perot seemed kind of nutty to me and his running mate was senile. I don't remember a whole lot because I was so young then.

The only thing I can think is that a lot of Mainers liked the idea of fiscal responsibility (many of them are quite frugal) and this seemed to be Perot's main issue. They probably also liked his matter-of-fact style of presentation. Mainers tend to be very straight forward and honest about what they think, so they would appreciate a candidate who got straight to the heart of the issues.

I don't consider most Mainers to be Republican because they care deeply about the environment and conservation. They are also very distrustful of big business (and out-of-staters).

[On the Road]

7. Perot Appealed to Me

partly because of his fiscal conservatism, partly because of his anti-NAFTA postion, and partly because he wasn't beholden to any of the usual special interests.

And unlike Nader, Perot had a real chance of winning the election. If he had not dropped out, he might have beat Clinton.

[FlaGranny]

8. Actually, I always

kind of liked him. He reminds my of a little banty rooster strutting about the farmyard AND a lot of what he said made a lot of sense and it still does.

Edit: I did not vote for him, though.

[rniel]

9. I voted for him

instead of clinton. But the 2nd time I voted in clinton cause he really won me over after seeing the results and just because he was running against dole. The 3rd time I voted Nader. This past 4 years I've become much more liberal than I used to be after actually getting into politics and reading I understand what I believe in clearer now.

[69KV]

10. A lot of Perot's appeal

came from him being a political centrist who looked and acted the middle class American part but spoke to issues of fiscal and economic fairness. He opposed NAFTA and made the federal debt a big issue. He appealed to those who might think of themselves as economic liberals who are somewhat socially conservative. But he was a moderate, not a wingnut on social issues, being pro-choice.

He also had a following on the right that came out of his activism on the POW-MIA issue and his reputation where for example he sent in a private rescue team to get his EDS employees out of Iran, and a following on the left that was more recent that came out of his opposition to NAFTA and the first Gulf War.

I don't think either of those followings made up the bulk of his support. Mostly it came from middle class people who saw their economic and class standing falling apart because of globalization. Conventional wisdom was that Perot took more Repuke votes than Democratic votes and helped put Clinton into office, and that's probably true because Perot personally comes across as a very conservative person despite his economic populism, but in fact a lot of Perot voters should be a natural constituency for the Democratic party.

[shraby]

11. I voted for him for several reasons:

1. He showed a campaign could be run without expending an obscene amount of money by using talk shows and other venues for his message.

2. He could foresee the results of the trade agreements and was right about it.

3. He became super rich and the only thing they could smear him with was the "paranoid" thing.

4. He was focused on the economy.

5. He didn't run any smear ads against anyone and was a positive guy.

6. He had to know what he was talking about on the economy because he ran a huge company and got there by being smart.

7. I didn't trust the Dems or Repubs at all.