"If Newt Is Perot..."

"... then Romney should avoid being Bush."

Obama defended with an argument that was used many years ago — lamely — to defend Ross Perot.

Oh, how I fulminated in 1992, when Ross Perot was challenged for not having women in his inner circle of advisors and he said:

But in terms of being influenced by women and being a minority, there they are right out there, my wife and my 4 beautiful daughters, and I just have 1 son, so he and I are surrounded by women, giving -- telling us what to do all the time.

My son John remembers, because we've watched the great documentary "The War Room" together many times, and when that part comes up, I've always gone into my rant that looks a lot like the rant I did over the new Ron Suskind book about Obama's inner circle when Anita Dunn tried to roll back her attack on Obama for the lack of women in his inner circle by saying "The president is someone who when he goes home at night he goes home to house full of very strong women... He values having strong women around him."

Who am I? Why am I not here?

James Stockdale, Perot's running mate in 1992, has died. He employed an unforgettable, offbeat style in the Vice Presidential debate, which will live forever in Saturday Night Live reruns, where his impersonator, Phil Hartman, is also immortal.