This country has been putting outsiders into the White House at an amazing clip over the past 15 years. It's resulted in J. Carter and R. Reagan, (in my mind) not two of our best presidents.

And now H. R. Perot is being touted as the current outsider. Although I don't know how any member of Nixon's "kitchen cabinet" can be considered an outsider.

I don't know much about Perot - but I do know that his "doer" or "ability to get things done" image is not necessarily positive. If we want one person to come in and get something done, we need to get rid of our current system of democracy and install an autocracy. A president in a democracy if effective when he/she is able to build consensus among the other branches of government. Things aren't going to be changed by bringing in an outsider to the presidency. Things will be changed when many more people in this country take it upon themselves to be more educated about how their government works and let their elected representatives know how they want the system changed, and then back up their desires with their voting power. But I don't hold much hope for that.

Politicians are "elected for life" by the voters. Voters are overly influenced by special interest groups because (1) these groups have the money to get their message out in snappy, memorable one-liner sound bites, and (2) the people are not knowledgeable enough to understand most issues beyond these sound bites. Kicking the current rascals out will only bring new rascals in - supported by the same money that but the old ones in power. The system doesn't care who the faces are.