I’m crazy for trying
And crazy for crying
And I’m crazy
For loving you

— Patsy Cline, “Crazy”

This presidential race needs something. And I can’t quite put my finger on it. Don’t get me wrong. I consider both Barack Obama and John McCain to be fine candidates. Men of integrity. Patriots. And judged by recent standards, plenty smart to lead us, if you catch my drift.

It’s just that I am a little surprised that Campaign 2008 has so quickly descended into the tit-for-tat, gotcha-the-other-guy’s-a-hypocrite portion of the proceedings. Not shocked, of course, just a little disappointed. Certainly not the transcendent, big-ideas race I thought might be possible a few months ago.

Just a few weeks after Obama’s spectacular coup d’etat of the Clinton dynasty, the exciting McCain/Obama adventure flick has morphed into a boring, plodding, slow-to-unfold drama whose final mystery won’t be revealed for another tedious four months.

In their efforts to keep us attentive, both campaigns will dutifully invoke emotionally charged words and phrases as they “unleash” truth squads and respond to the other’s most recent “attacks” of the day.

And, on a grander scale, both leading actors will surely jazz things up when they ring up Central Casting for their respective running mates sometime this summer.

But, in the meantime, what this script really needs is an extended cameo appearance by a quirky character actor who can deliver an adrenalized jolt to the storyline. Something visceral, primal, organic, even scary — something to force us to stay glued to the action and not slip out for popcorn, never to return.

OK. I am now going to say this just one time, then I will deny it if ever asked about it again: I miss Ross Perot. There, I said it. Let those legendary career-ending chips fall where they must.

I can shut my eyes and imagine him entering, or exiting, stage left as if it were yesterday.

Although Perot was last on the national stage in 1996 when he received 8 million votes as the Reform Party candidate for president, the memory most etched in my mind is from a 1992 election-eve event at Reunion Hall in Dallas.

Promising an upset victory the next day, the bombastic, diminutive billionaire took his daughter’s hand and literally danced across the stage to the soulful sounds of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy.”

After earlier slipping into the race on “Larry King Live,” then spending 60 million of his own dollars (huge dough in those days), Perot shocked the political world by dropping out of the race later that summer just as Bill Clinton was about to receive the Democratic nomination in New York City.

The 1992 “Perot Drop-Out” was just about the biggest news that emerged during that year’s Democratic convention. Reporters tasked to cover the convention were forced to shift gears and whip up “Perot Out” stories on the fly. The guy really knew how to get folks to pay attention.

And Perot did it again when he jumped back into that ’92 race just a few weeks before the election.

And theatrics, oddities, and valid criticisms notwithstanding, Perot still convinced nearly 20 million of his countrymen to vote for him. Pretty amazing.

But more than his quirky behavior, personality or sense of the stage, Perot’s most effective offerings were his simple, made-for-TV charts designed to underscore the fiscal crisis facing the nation.

And guess what? Perot is back. Well, not really. But his charts sure are. And they are certainly worth looking at. A few weeks ago, Perot launched PerotCharts.com and, in typical Old Testament prophet fashion, he delivered the bad news:

“The U.S. national debt reached $9.4 trillion on April 30, and it is increasing by more than $1 billion every day. We are leaving our children and grandchildren with debt they cannot possibly pay,” Perot said.

There is plenty of material worth looking at on the site, and the only disappointment, as pointed out by David Broder, is the fact that Perot uses a hired-gun voice for his slide show.

Love him or hate him, Perot is a compelling figure and he should have his own voice on there.

That small criticism aside, it is a real shame that Obama and McCain are not using this campaign to address the concerns of folks like Perot and former Comptroller General David Walker of the Peter Peterson Foundation, among others.

In one small section where Perot actually does his own speaking, there is just enough to remind you how the Texan’s folksy approach gained him entrance into the hearts and minds of the American people back in the 1990s. Perot warns that the $9.4 trillion (our debt) can be visualized by $1 bills stacked to the brim in filled boxcars. Boxcars that would then need to be stretched 1,400 miles across the country. The same old Perot. More high-tech charts. Much bigger, scarier numbers.

You can reach Jim Mills at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it