PLATFORM : Land of Choices

Time magazine’s selection of Bill Clinton as its 1992 Man of the Year was hardly a surprise. If the category was “candidates who made the most lasting impact on presidential campaigns,” I’d like to nominate Ross Perot for Man of the Last Quarter Century.

Perot demonstrated that a candidate does not need one of the two major parties to be seriously considered . . . that there are real alternatives to the arcane and cumbersome “primary marathon” of the Republicans and Democrats.

Although Clinton is remembered for playing his saxophone on TV’s “Arsenio Hall” show, it was really Perot who pioneered the way, demonstrating that the “new” media--talk shows, 800 numbers and fax machines--are a whole new way of reaching people.

The old way of thinking--three flavors of ice cream, three TV networks and two political parties/candidates--has been overthrown. Watch for a proliferation of candidates, many of whom, in this new environment of choices, will experience success.