Larry King Dead

[PeterRS]

When Larry King was on CNN, I watched his show quite regularly. I admired the way he got some interesting and fascinating guests and gently probed them into revealing quite a lot about themselves.

The guest I found most illuminating was, of all people, Ross Perot. I had little interest in American politics until then and initially thought Perot a charlatan. But he then started taking graphs into the studio to illustrate the points he was making. Suddenly all the political talking of other politicians seemed silly. Why talk when one graph illustrates everything very succinctly? I have no idea how accurate those graphs were, but since then I have always wondered why politicians everywhere spend so much time spouting hot air when they could save so much time with easy to comprehend visual materials.

[reader]

Perot's campaign as an independent steadily gained traction because of his no nonsense approach to the issues of the day. He was actually ahead in several polls when he temporarily withdrew from the race, leaving some supporters disenchanted. But he rejoined the fray and the chase was on again. He drew many voters away from the the incumbent Bush (who pushed his foreign policy credentials), while Clinton (whose campaign mantra was "it's the economy, stupid") swept to victory, winning 32 states and 370 electoral votes. 

Although he didn't win any states, Perot managed to garner 18.9% of voters.

Clinton's victory marked the first time in US electoral history that a candidate won without taking Florida until 2020.

[TotallyOz]

If Ross had not left the race and reentered, I think he might have won.

As for Larry King, I met him several times when I lived in NYC. He was an avid Broadway show patron and went on many opening nights as did I. I sat near him many time and said hello a few.

I loved his show. I learned a lot and it was informative.

[PeterRS]

14 hours ago, reader said:

Although he didn't win any states, Perot managed to garner 18.9% of voters.

One reason why the US Electoral College is a vastly out of date anti democratic anachronism.