Posner lets air out of this story. Yes, Perot certainly did roll up his sleeves and take action by hiring his own rescue squad and traveling himself to Iran. But he got in the way of American diplomatic efforts to safeguard thousands of other Americans in the chaos and owes embassy workers a debt of gratitude for his own safety, instead of the contempt with which he has treated them.
Posner is best remembered for his 1993 reexamination of the Kennedy assassination, "Case Closed," a book that sought to debunk conspiracy theorists and supported the conventional conclusion that one gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, did the shooting. This new book does not go so strongly against the popular grain but enriches much of the standard and critical thinking about Perot.
Perot's seeming paranoia about people out to destroy him is probed and found to be--mostly paranoia. In particular, the author delves into Perot's mysterious and temporary pullout from the presidential race in 1992, after supposed "reports" that Republicans were planning to embarrass daughter Carolyn. Posner traces the bizarre and convoluted story to a con man who apparently gained Perot's trust.
To critics, and even some fence-sitters, one of Perot's most condescending characteristics is his recurring suggestion that he acts not in his own interests but because voters have appealed to him to save the day. This ploy is unmasked numerous times in "Citizen Perot," including the moment when Perot decided to run for president in 1992.
The author quotes Perot's onetime hireling, novelist Follett, for a different perspective: "I've heard him say it, 'If I could run for king, I would do it.' "
