Redux Ross Perot

It has been some time since Ross Perot uttered that famous "great sucking sound" quote about the effect of the U.S/Canada Free Trade Agreement during his ill-fated run for the White House in 1992. In alot of ways he reminds me of the great Yogi Berra.

What brought him out of active retirement was probably pronouncements of support for another Texan, T. Boone Pickens’ and his public proposals for wind-based energy policy. But no matter, from a different perspective here is ZDNet's take on Mr. Perot's recent activities.

Magna Charta: Welcome Back, Ross Perot by ZDNet's Tom Steinert-Threlkeld -- So, EDS is gone (again), subsumed by HP. But, lo and behold, H. Ross Perot is back, just in time for the presidential elections. Now, you can view his slides about the dangers of the federal deficit and debt online, any time you want. Or, hear him posit that the only silver lining [...]

To exert some influence over the upcoming US election is the most obvious, and who can dispute that US Federal Debt is now $9.4 trillion (versus $4 trillion when Perot railed against it in 1992) or that the US Federal Debt is now accumulating at the rate of $1 billion per day (and the FNMA/FMAC bailout have not yet been finalized!). I predict his next famous quote will be:

It’s one thing to promise me free candy forever, but where are you going to get it?

Also nothing beats Ross Perot reciting the Pioneers Creed:

The cowards never started, the weak died on the way and only the strong survived.

Perot is correct when he says that Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility will handcuff the next president by limiting his options. On July 28, 2008 the WhiteHouse Office of Management and Budget stated that it had revised the budget deficit projected for fiscal year 2009 to a record $482 billion from only 6 months earlier.

p.s In order to comprehend these VERY LARGE numbers I refer you to this post - a "visual aid" to help my daughter understand the "Age of Earth". Make that last "square" a "cube" (by adding a third "100 cell" dimension - with each cell representing a 1 million cell cube) and THIS NEW SUPER-CUBE equals 1 Trillon! The U.S Federal Debt is therefore represented by almost 10 SUPER-CUBES. Sobering, n'est pas?