there are few women during the period of my life of 62 years who have shown more strength, more courage and more commitment and more dedication who have been more brutally tested than mrs. stockdale. and as a combination, as two pieces of steel. it is my privilege to introduce jim stockdale and his great wife sybil. [ applause ] >> sibbel and i are in our 46th year of marriage and we have four sons and five grandchildren and another on the way. the love of my life. saved my life once, if you ever read the book we wrote. it's my honor to be my old friend ross perot's running mate in this great effort to give the american people an independent way to go. i have a personal reputation for being independent in outlook and manner so this role gives me

added satisfaction. ross perot, extraordinary man. a word used in a popular biographical article on ross by his recent director of communication jim squires, this is on the newsstands now -- a good man, a selfless man. these adjectives come from the heart. sibbel has known him for 23-plus years and ever since i got off the plane from hanoi in 1973. the toast of american modern-age technology and entrepreneurship, a public education authority, on stanford campus yesterday i was stopped by the chairman of the education department and that department does not train teachers so much as they are into the theory of education and he said, you're having quite a life. i've been there 12 years. i know faculty well. he said, you know, i've read the

reports of mr. perot's work both in his preschool experience in 1968 and the work with the high schools later. and he said, he really has some original approaches. he said, it's not a teacher-bashing operation. he sat there for four months in those classrooms and asked questions and talked to the students and the teachers before he made any moves. he's a benefactor of the poor. perhaps in a -- in a story i heard from one of his close dallas friends, she said ross is the only man who would or could phone the salvation army headquarters in new york every january and ask the question, okay, how far short are you this year? and the guardian of the american fighting man. he put our plight in hanoi on page one in the world. and today gulf war veterans thank him for the sponsorship of

the private hospitalization and wounds too extensive for normal v.a. care. so for me, this is a grand experience and a great opportunity. when ross phoned me last march to be his running mate, i was in the early stages of writing a book about my patron saint in prison, a first century philosophy eftitus. he inspires tough people, like ross and i starting this campaign as underdogs. and i looked for the quote that would give me power in this clutch and i settled for this. a life not put to the test, is not worth living. and i thank providence for this life, with all its trials, and for this opportunity. when i wrote this article right here, sybil and i got on the plane in san francisco this morning and when we got off it, the pilot somehow found out who

we were. and he came to the door and he just stuck out his hand and he said i want to thank you -- he was the captain of the plane. a mane in his 40s, any way. i want to thank you for everything you did out there in hanoi. and suspect you flew over there. and he said no, the gulf war was my war. and before we got off he grabbed me and said tell ross, i'm going to vote for him. they're all over the country, folks. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> and we'll turn the podium over to arsenal signal. our national coordinator. >> mr. perot? >> mr. perot? >> i want to get my family safely out of here. i got that taken care of.

now -- just before everybody tarts yelling at once, i can't see you at all because it is so dark. but i'll try. >> tell us the kind of campaign you'll run. mr. swindle there is a heavy emphasis on media and television. >> it is on the issues. >> does this mean you will not be traveling around the country in will you just be on tv? give us an idea. >> assume you own a basketball team. >> would expect to you ask me for my strategy but would you expect me to give you the strategy. we won't lay out the strategy for you. it is unconventional, i'll tell you that. but i don't want to cut you off, but it doesn't make any sense for us to lay out our strategy. >> will this be a strategy to highlight our issues or to win and if so how do you do that with just over a month to go in the election. >> we will win by highlighting our issues. >> are you caming or just doing -- campaigning or just doing commercials. >> now you are getting into our strategy.

and i just feel it is not wise to tell you. i think -- just -- nobody would tell his opponents the strategy in any sort of confrontation and i don't think we should. [ overlapping speakers ] >> you're not going to tell us what your campaign plans are. will you tell us when you're going to appear and when? >> we will not reveal our strategy. we'll have it unfold day after day. here is the one thing you can bet on, it is going to be serious and it is going to focus on the issues. and that's going to be -- but then exactly how we run a serious campaign focusing on the issues, that will unfold day after day. >> the plan, was it crafted by a former adviser to president carter whose stewardship of the economy was not widely praised? it.

>> now, if no one else will yell, try that again. because i got part of it. >> why should america put its trust in an economic plan crafted largely by a carter administration official? >> number one, it was not crafted largely by that person. that person participated on the team, made an important contribution. that person is a very bright, wise, able person. i had absolute control over that plan. was deeply involved in it myself and a very talented team made up of a number of people participated. but and so, again, your question is -- has a bad premise. >> and the gas tax, the increase tax and the social security benefits and this all revolved around the middle kplas and the rich don't participate as much as the middle class. >> you expect your opponents to distort and -- and i wouldn't

digfy that answer with a comment. i know exactly who and where that comes from. he said it so many times -- >> i will at the proper time. but the point is, does everybody here -- >> mr. perot, could you explain what interest it is in the average american to have his or her gasoline bill go up an average of $300 a year to solve the deficit when richer americans will not have to undergo that similar type of burden. could you explain why it is in their interest. that is a simple question, sir. >> if you look at the cost of gasoline around the world, in italy it is up to $5 a gallon and most of the other industrial kpet tigs nations it is up to $4 a gallon. mostly the cost is the same roughly all over the world. the variation is in the tax. those nations take that tax and build infrastructure. our infrastructure is falling apart. our purpose in collecting ten cents a gallon over five years

put us still way at the bottom of the industrialized world and infrastructure will create jobs and make our country stronger and get the multiplier effect from having a modern infrastructure as opposed to a decaying infrastructure. when you look at what germany is spending to improve its infrastructure and what japan is spending to improve its infrastructure, little taiwan is looking to improve its infrastructure and here nobody could afford to buy a car let alone gasoline. we have to do that sort of thing now. >> you talked about -- >> i'm here today to announce and have a positive, good time. and i mean, everything here is the usual hostile, negative and yelling and screaming. i'll take two more. [ overlapping speakers ] >> you said when you dropped out of the race, you were making a rational decision. when you dropped out on july

16th -- >> mr. perot? >> mr. perot, you talked about young people and that you're interested in young people in your campaign. many young people in this country are very apathetic when it comes to voting, how can your role in this campaign change that? >> well, i certainly want to get them to participate and based on the number of young people who have contacted me and come to see me and in some cases driven across the country to come see me, my sense is they're going to be very active this year. and i think it is terribly important that they be active. more and more, particularly once they finish school, finish high school and can't get a job. finish college and can't get a job. get a master's degree and can't get a job and a mab from a big name big school and can't get a job. they are starting to say, wait a minute. something is wrong. they are really concerned about making sure we don't drop the $4 trillion burden on them. and as all you question why we have to have fair shared

sacrifice across this country, please recognize, it is because we spent our children's money. and please understand, won't it be neat if we were $4 trillion down but everything was perfect. they would say, well we're $4 trillion in debt but we have the industrial base for the world and the finest schools and we've got no crime and we have alabaster cities on agreement with human tears and unfortunately with the bottom of the world in public education and most crime in the industrialized world our cities are in decay, and our public schools rank at the bottom of the industrialized world and we owe $4 trillion. this is going to be a tough pull to fix it. now, why am i so blunt about it and nobody else is? because the american people are ready to address it and fix it and both of the other parties say it is political suicide to talk about it. well, my objective is not to commit political suicide but i do understand that the american people are ready to deal with this and every day is precious.

if you delay, it is delaying once you know you have cancer. it is like going through a period where you -- denial, you refuse to accept. it it is pretty important to get treatment quick. we're at this point, we need to do it while we're still strong. >> ten minutes ago you said you were quitting the race because you didn't want to be a spoiler and didn't want to be disruptive. now you say you're back to win this thing. >> yes. >> isn't your strategy to disrupt george bush's vote in a number of key states, including this one, texas? >> absolutely not. that is press myth number 615. wait just a minute. wait a minute. let me finish. absolutely not. absolutely not. now, i love you guys. [ laughter ] he has called me every name in the book. all i've ever said, fine man and fine family. the only thing i ever criticized is his