I'm Bob Garfield, and this is an O-TM podcast extra, this time from our friends at the data news site, 538.com.

As election day, inches closer, 538 decided to look at a race featuring an unorthodox billionaire wearing his political outsiderness as a badge of honor.

This was 1992, and that man was Ross Perot.

And his campaign against Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George H.W. Bush still stands as a cautionary tale about, well, it depends on who you ask.

Ross Perotult absolutely cost George H.W. Bush re-election in 92.

The idea that Perot costs Bush re-election in 1992 is supported by everything but evidence.

I don't care what the Clinton people say.

They are only saying that because they want to say President Clinton won outright,

but he did not have a majority mandate.

There are people that are going to go to their grave believe in the earth

are 6,000 years old.

All that I can do is say what the evidence is.

That's James Carville.

I was Chief Strategist for the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign.

And Mary Madeline.

I was George Herbert Walker Bush's deputy campaign manager in 1992.

They're married and actually dated while working on opposite sides of the 1992 presidential election.

Him for Clinton, her for Bush.

It's an election that still divides people today.

Not so much because of Clinton or Bush, but because of the other guy, Ross Perrault.

Now, before I start, I have to use my voodoo stick again. And this is a simulated alligator

claw on a voodoo stick.

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