DALLAS (AP) — H. Ross Perot, who died Tuesday at his home in Dallas, was known for memorable quips, especially during his run for president as a third-party candidate in 1992. Here are some quotes from Perot:
ON WHAT HE WANTED TO BE REMEMBERED FOR: “Aw, I don’t worry about that.” (to The Dallas Morning News in 2016)
ON BEING A TEXAN: “Texas born. Texas bred. When I die, I’ll be Texas dead. Ha!” (to The Dallas Morning News in 2016)
ON TRADE: “Well, everybody’s nibbling around the edges. Let’s go to the center of the bull’s-eye, the core problem. And believe me, everybody on the factory floor all over this country knows it. You implement that NAFTA, the Mexican trade agreement, where they pay people a dollar an hour, have no health care, no retirement, no pollution controls, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and you’re going to hear a giant sucking sound of jobs being pulled out of this country right at a time when we need the tax base to pay the debt and pay down the interest on the debt and get our house back in order.” (from a 1992 presidential debate)
ON CHARACTER: “Which one of the three candidates, as a young man, would you want your daughter to marry? Ears and all …. Which of the three candidates would be the best role model for your children?” (from the 1992 campaign, according to The Baltimore Sun)
ON HIS OWN CAMPAIGN COMMERICALS: “I love the fact that people will listen to a guy with a bad accent and a poor presentation manner talking about flip charts for 30 minutes, because they want the details.” (from a 1992 presidential debate.)
ON NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING: “And I have said again and again and again, let’s get off mud wrestling, let’s get off personalities, and let’s talk about jobs, health care, crime, the things that concern the American people.” (from a 1992 presidential debate)
ON NAFTA: “Will water run downhill? Yes. Will an apple fall from a tree? … Will jobs flow to cheap labor and get away from government headaches?” (to reporters on conference call in 1993)
ON GETTING THINGS DONE: “Build a consensus and then do it and then go on to the next one. But don’t just sit here slow dancing for four years doing nothing.” (from a 1992 presidential debate)
ON MANAGEMENT: “The first EDSer to see a snake kills it. At GM, first thing you do is organize a committee on snakes. Then you bring in a consultant who knows a lot about snakes. Third thing you do is talk about it for a year.” (Deriding the business acumen at General Motors compared to his Electronic Data Systems Corp., to BusinessWeek in 1986)