Just heard Newt Gingrich tell Greta he believes the Tea Party movement, in some measure, grew from the same people who were Ross Perot supporters in the past. I admit I don't know enough about that time period to say but what I do know of Perot, I wouldn't have voted for him - at all. I guess he had one or two good ideas and lots of charts to prove them but ... ? And yes, I could Google 'Ross Perot' and try to parse what was reported at the time and after but really, who has that many hours?

Anyone have any knowledge/comments/views on this?

This is exactly why I cringe whenever there's talk of Newt running for president.

I'm pretty sure Newt is confusing Ross for Ron Paul. And I agree, Newts a moron.

Anyone remember a hundred million years ago when he was supporting a liberal democrat over a conservative in NYS?...oh wait that was like a few months ago.

True story. My brother called me this morning asking if he could stop by - he'd picked up a used book for me. He doesn't know what it's about but the title looked to be of interest. The book is, "United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country" by Ross Perot. We've never discussed Ross Perot and my brother doesn't read the message board. <cue Twilight Zone music>

That is an odd coincidence. I know Ross Perot was running on the idea of paying off the deficit by adding a 10 cent a gallon gasoline tax. I also remember the debate between him, Bush and Clinton. Bush and Clinton would each give an answer based on what they'd do politically, and Ross Perot would say "There are a lot of ideas running around Washington and I plan on using those." or my favorite line "If anyone has an idea I'm all ears!"

I almost think he was just running to draw a percentage of the conservative vote so Clinton could win with a less then 40% vote in his favor or something.

What I think is fascinating is watching all the media and politicians try to "define" and co-op the tea party. The tea parties are an enigma to them.

The paradigm has shifted. We know that, so it is amusing to watch the show.

Some of think that the tea party is a political party. (although there is one guy running under a "Tea Party Party" in Nevada which has been denounced by all of the Nevadan tea parties ... which seems to be a left-wing ploy to split the vote so that Reid will get back into power...)

Now they think it came from Perot? That's funny.

Well, they are wasting their time and energy on this subject by looking through their progressive glasses trying to put labels on us. After all, they love stereotypes to exploit and they do LOVE labels!

Americans are diverse and the issues that the tea party folks care about are many. I would go out on a limb and say that ALL of the issues get down to one thing --- The Declaration of Independence and Our Constitution. The documents our Founding Fathers created is what unites and defines us.

So I say to the politicians and the media...

Pick up a copy of the constitution and read it.

In fact, they can read it for FREE online here:
U.S. Constitution Online

If they would actually take off their rose-colored progressive 3D spectacles and read our founding documents (instead of the DailyKos and the Huffington Post), they would get a glimpse from where the Tea Party springs forth from!