A city road. A lamppost. Two tramps.
Evening. In America.
BILL: Policies for every situation.
GEORGE: I won the Iraqi War.
BILL: Prosperity for all.
GEORGE: I won the Rio Earth Summit.
BILL: Justice for minorities.
GEORGE: I won the 1992 elec – but enough of this idle chatter. He runs.
BILL: Who does?
GEORGE: Perot.
BILL: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) Gorgo?
GEORGE: Yes, Bibi?
BILL: What’s he like?
GEORGE: When I saw him yesterday, he said he was for the little guy.
BILL: But, isn’t he a billionaire three times over?
GEORGE: Well, it could have been the day before yesterday that he confided in me that he was against big government.
BILL: But, wasn’t his fortune built primarily on government contracts, like Texas Blue Shield and Medicare?
GEORGE: Okay. Okay. But just last week he was articulating the feelings of the common folk everywhere.
BILL: Now, how could he speak for the common people when he lives in a guarded compound well away from them?
GEORGE: Are you saying I haven’t see Perot? (Bill shrugs.) Perhaps I haven’t. But I do know one thing.
BILL: Yes?
GEORGE: He runs. (Pause.)
BILL: Gorgo, how can you be sure he runs? Isn’t he waiting to see if his name is put on ballots in 50 states?
GEORGE: Bah! I suppose you believe in the tooth fairy, too!
BILL: Well.
GEORGE: Yes, and Santa Claus.
BILL: You know.
GEORGE: And, balanced budgets.
BILL: Steady on.
GEORGE: Well, it just so happens that the “off-hand” comment about the subject he made on Larry King Live had actually been planned in advance. Nobody puts such effort into the matter without serious intentions.
BILL: Serious intentions.
GEORGE: He runs. (Pause.)
BILL: Will he be bringing Nixon with him?
GEORGE: No.
BILL: But, they have been friends.
GEORGE: No, Bibi. Nixon is not in the loop. He was mugged in Washington by two reporters years ago. He lost his sneakers.
BILL: No more running.
GEORGE: Indeed. (Pause.)
BILL: Do you think –
GEORGE: Not before consulting polls.
BILL: I mean, does he love us?
GEORGE: He loved two of his employees enough to rescue them from a prison in Tehran.
BILL: Piffle. A trifle. Mere cowboy diplomacy. Does he love us?
GEORGE: He loves the victims of the drug trade enough to suspend constitutional protections to save them from a life of crime.
BILL: But, us, Gorgo. Does he love us?
GEORGE: Does it make a difference? He runs.
BILL: Who does?
GEORGE: Perot.
BILL: (despairingly). Ah! (Pause.)