Op-ed: Embodying Perot

Social security, immigration, energy, health care. What do these four things have in common? They are all reform efforts that Washington has tried unsuccessfully to pass over the last five years. And somewhere out there is the next Ross Perot--stewing in his private jet and thinking that he should order the plane to redirect to Washington, New York Times columnist David Brooks writes.
 
When he arrives, "he’ll point out that Washingtonians, all of them, breed selfishness. Republicans refuse to accept tax increases. Democrats reject spending cuts. They’ve put the country on a highway to a fiscal crisis, and there are no exit ramps," Brooks writes.
 
But wait, Brooks says, there is opportunity here for Barack Obama. Embody Perot, but be a saner version. User your self-esteem for good and distance yourself from the status quo. Tour the country and raise the consciousness of the public.
 
The deficits are the issue around which everything else revolves. The mounting deficits both symbolize Washington’s institutional dysfunction and genuinely threaten the nation.
 
If the setbacks of the last year haven’t radicalized you about the sickness of our current political system, Mr. President, I don’t know what will. Are you really content to spend the year lobbying for tiny tax credits for ineffective training programs?
 
He’s out there — that saner Ross Perot. He’s a-comin’. The country would be better off if it were you.
 
(Photo by dbking of Ross Perot at the 2009 Eagle Bank Bowl; C.C. 2.0)