February 20, 1992: The Ross Perot Campaign

February 20, 1992: Computer billionaire H. Ross Perot is a guest on the CNN talk show Larry King Live, and announces his availability to be a candidate for President of the United States.

This leads to a populist outcry for a man who is beholden to neither the Republicans (whose offerings are the failing incumbent George H.W. Bush and the bigoted, inexperienced Pat Buchanan) nor the Democrats (whose offerings are led by the scandal-ridden Bill Clinton and a bunch of uninspiring guys).

But during the Democratic Convention in July, Perot, who had never actually announced he was running, announced he wasn't running. Then, in September, just in time to qualify for the Presidential Debates, making them the 1st 3-way Presidential debates in general election history, he announced he had gotten on the ballot in all 50 States, and was running.

He nominated James Stockdale, a retired Navy Admiral who had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam, as his Vice President. During the Vietnam War, Perot had gotten some POWs released, and that's how he first became famous. Perot launched several zingers during the debates. And he launched half-hour "infomercials," where he sat at a desk, held up charts, and used a pointer to demonstrate the points he wanted to make. The media ate all this up.

But Perot's "movement" turned out to be loud, but not especially big. And he turned out to be insane, and, like all businessmen who've never run for office before, to not have a clue as to how government actually works, or should work.

Fortunately, in 1992, Americans weren't stupid enough to elect a man like that to be our President.

He ended up getting 19 percent of the vote, best performance by a 3rd-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912... but won no Electoral Votes, unlike such 3rd-party candidates as Bob LaFollette in 1924, Strom Thurmond in 1948 and George Wallace in 1968. Why? Because, as his self-chosen theme song pointed out, he was "Crazy."

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February 20, 1992 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 92-89 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 110-101 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.)

* The Miami Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 111-109 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 105-103 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 6-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The New Jersey Devils and the Chicago Blackhawks played to a tie, 4-4 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 4-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And, in an "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.