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Jewish World Review Feb. 23, 2000 / 18 Adar I, 5760
Chris Matthews
The sad drop in turnout tracked a similar decline in votes
for the Reform Party candidate. Twenty million people
voted for party founder Ross Perot in '92. Just 8 million
did so in '96.
Let's suppose that the reason for this lower vote last time
was the lack of a provocative alternative to the two major
parties. Perot, the new kid on the block eight years ago,
had lost much of his pizzazz by the time of his second run
.
The question for the election this year is how to attract the
independent-minded, turned-off voter. What would bring
out the Reagan Democrats, Reagan Republicans,
libertarians and, in some cases, the just plain grouchy who
took a good long look at Perot in 1992?
One sure way to depress the turnout would be to offer
such voters the too-exciting-to-bear choice between the
legacy twins, George W. Bush and Albert A. Gore. That
would guarantee a national March-through-November
snore-athon.
One way to inflate millennial year turnout would be the
creation of a coalition between hopeful, reform-minded
independents and a hopeful, reform-minded Republican presidential nominee.
A perfect candidate to head this fusion ticket would be John McCain, a man
who has made campaign finance reform into a crusade. Unlike Bush, he
preaches that the GOP's heartiest future lies in the activism, reform-mindedness
and vision of Teddy Roosevelt. Also, he is not a Bush, a family that Reform
Party founder Ross Perot, for some reason known best to him, despises.
A fusion ticket backed by Reformers as well as Republicans would present
Perot with an added plus. It would keep his party's nomination free from the
clutches of Patrick J. Buchanan, a man who last year wrote a book, "A
Republic, Not an Empire," that condemns the Western democracies for
standing up to Hitler in 1939.
The patriot Ross Perot did not create a political party to have it overrun by a
political arch-conservative looking for a more receptive home.
How does Perot feel toward McCain, a man who has this year championed the
Reform Party cause of campaign finance reform?
History offers an intriguing clue. Back in 1970, the Dallas multi-billionaire flew
to Southeast Asia with hopes of getting food and medical supplies to American
POWs like John McCain.
Thirty years later, a somewhat different Perot mission to help a former Vietnam
POW may be at the strategy stage. Maybe this time, Perot will make it through
with the
02/18/00: McCain faces fury of GOP establishment
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