Fascinating piece by Micah L. Sifry in Salon yesterday about the return of an enchanting electoral ghost:

Is Ross Perot plotting a return to the national stage in time for the 2004 elections? Judging from a well-written 95-page book proposal making its way through the New York publishing circuit, a copy of which arrived unbidden in my e-mail, the crazy aunt in the basement wants to sing again.

Nice writing, too. Worth a look just for the last clause of that opening paragraph. It's unclear whether or not he's intending to run, but according to the piece, "His agent is telling publishers that he will do a media blitz in conjunction with his book's publication, and says that Perot envisions a series of nonpartisan town hall forums, an echo of the old "electronic town halls" he used to tout when he was running for president." It's to be ghost-written by James Champy, responsible for the bestseller "Reengineering the Corporation."

I can't see Perot grabbing many votes with a third run, or even him being delusional enough not to realize that, but I do believe the book will rocket up the bestseller charts and create a large stir. And listen to the tenor of the stir he's planning:

Perot and Champy's take on the current scene is quite pungent: "The United States loses 100,000 jobs a month. The recession won't go away. The stock market tanks. Great companies cook their books. Airlines fail. Foreign investors pull out. Healthcare doesn't work. Social Security is a mess. The space program is grounded. Homeland security is a jumble. Congress can't agree on a budget. And just as federal tax revenues plunge, leaving states in the lurch, the United States takes on huge new military costs across the planet, swelling an already soaring federal deficit and creating the biggest national debt in world history."

Exactly the message the Dems have been so inarticulate in expressing. How wonderful would it be for a powerful voice--and I'll give Ross that--enunciating it? Better yet, a voice from the Right, which the Ann Coulters (who let her out of hell?)* won't be able to discredit so easily. They've got other ways to discredit Ross--given his fondness for making an ass of himself from time to time--but a lot of people on the right and the center who don't believe a word printed in the New York Times will listen to him, no matter what how loudly those attack dogs yelp.

I don't expect Ross to turn the election on its ear (though you never know), but if Dean or some other articulate Dem candidate is wrestling Bush onto the skids, Ross might appear at just the right moment with a slippery can of grease. 

* (I stole the "who let her out of hell?" line from someone on a Dean discussion board. Can't hear her name without thinking it anymore, it's been permanently appended.)