Cruz, Ted - A Time for Truth by Cruz Ted

Author:Cruz, Ted [Cruz, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political candidates, Political
ISBN: 9780062365613
Publisher: Broadside Books
Published: 2015-06-29T05:00:00+00:00

* In his office Fielding had two of the coolest pictures I had ever seen. One was of himself on Air Force One standing next to President Reagan, who held a bumper sticker reading, “My lawyer can beat your lawyer.” The second was of himself with George W. Bush, on Air Force One, holding up the very same bumper sticker.

CHAPTER 8

Into the Beast

The accusation was telling. Only to Washington insiders could building a successful multimillion-dollar business from scratch, raising a seemingly well-adjusted and devoted family, and spearheading a military-style rescue of employees being held in an Iranian prison be considered “inexperience” for national office.*

H. Ross Perot was a man with his own failings, to be sure—he was the first to admit that—but he had built a tremendous business empire from nothing. He found himself on the cover of Fortune magazine and was one of the wealthiest men in America.

With pugnaciousness and grit—his major issue was the federal debt—the five-foot-five, silver-haired Perot had managed a Herculean feat: He was running neck-and-neck and in some instances leading national polls for the presidency of the United States against two seasoned political veterans. His third-party run challenged the two-party system in a way it hadn’t been since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. As you might imagine, the two-party system didn’t like that very much.

In the Athletic Complex on the campus of St. Louis’s Washington University, Perot stood beside the Republican incumbent, George H. W. Bush, and his Democratic challenger, Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, for the first of three presidential debates. The two men onstage quickly attacked Perot on the audacity of deciding to run for president when he hadn’t in effect paid his dues in politics. “I think one thing that distinguishes [us] is experience,” said the sitting president.

Asked to respond, Perot offered a typically forceful, truthful answer that turned the question on its head.

Gesturing to the president and Governor Clinton, Perot shrugged. “Well, they’ve got a point,” he said in his high-pitched Texas twang. “I don’t have any experience in running up a four-trillion-dollar debt. I don’t have any experience in gridlocked government where nobody takes responsibility for anything and everybody blames everybody else. I don’t have any experience in creating the worst public school system in the industrialized world, the most violent, crime-ridden society in the industrialized world.

“But I do have a lot of experience in getting things done. So if we’re at a point in history where we want to stop talking about it and do it, I’ve got a lot of experience in figuring out how to solve problems, making the solutions work, and then moving on to the next one. I’ve got a lot of experience in not taking ten years to solve a ten-minute problem. So if it’s time for action, I think I have experience that counts. If it’s more time for gridlock and talk and finger-pointing, I’m the wrong man.”

It was a rare feat indeed for a businessman to outshine politicians who talk for a living, but Perot managed it.

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