Perot Vows To Rebuild Auto Industry: Billionaire Compares State of Nation to GM
LANSING, Mich., July 10ÛÓRoss Perot, tailoring his standard 15-minute campaign pep talk to the concerns of a state suffering from high unemployment, pledged today to rebuild the United States as the ÛÏcar capital of the world.Û</br></br>LANSING, Mich., July 10ÛÓRoss Perot, tailoring his standard 15-minute campaign pep talk to the concerns of a state suffering from high unemployment, pledged today to rebuild the United States as the ÛÏcar capital of the world.Û "In Michigan, I donÛªt have to tell you what the economic state of the country is,Û Perot told a crowd of several thousand cheering supporters on the steps of the state capitol. "Can you go home and sleep peacefully until we are the car capital of the. world?Û</br></br>Perot also compared the state of the nation ÛÏto General Motors in the mid-1980sÛÛÓ-a period when Perot served on the GM board and infuriated management with his public needling of company policies. Like GM then, he said, the country is headed downhill and we have to ÛÏfix that car nowÛ instead of waiting ÛÏuntil it is completely broken down in the middle of Death Valley.Û</br></br>But Perot declined to spell out any specific proposals for reviving the auto industry, an omission that seemed to make little difference to a crowd that included more than a few unemployed auto workers.</br></br>TodayÛªs rally was called to celebrate the presentation of more than 300,000 signatures on Perot petitions, more than 10 times the 26,000 required to guarantee the Texas billionaire a place on the Michigan ballot.