Perot Says Movement Will Remain a Force for Change : Independent: Texan concedes defeat, urges supporters to use energy to ‘make our country work’.

Ross Perot conceded defeat in his independent bid for President Tuesday night with grace and generosity, pledging all of his and his supporters’ energy to aid President-elect Bill Clinton’s efforts to remake America.

In what was billed as a victory rally in a Dallas hotel ballroom, Perot said that his movement would not end with his electoral defeat, but would remain intact as “a force for constructive good throughout our country.”

“Forget the election, it’s behind us,” Perot told several thousand damp-eyed supporters in the ballroom of the Grand Kempinski Hotel in the Dallas suburb of Addison. “The hard work is in front of us.”

The highly competitive and unconventional tycoon, never famous for magnanimity in his many business triumphs, graciously urged his supporters to give three cheers for President Bush’s many years of public service.

None of his backers here expressed surprise at the outcome of the election, only regret that Perot’s abrupt withdrawal from the race in July, his October return, and his unsubstantiated charges of Republican dirty tricks had derailed what might have been the greatest upset victory in American political history.

They repeatedly interrupted Perot’s concession speech with chants of “Ninety-six! Ninety-six!” Perot said he hoped that his return to presidential politics would not be necessary, but said that if Clinton failed to address the nation’s economic problems, “We’ve always got a safety valve. You can bring that old stray dog out from the pound again.”

Although many in the audience were heartbroken that Perot had lost, the event had more of the flavor of a wedding than a wake. A jazz band played patriotic favorites and the campaign’s theme song, the Patsy Cline hit “Crazy.”

In a symbolic reflection of a grass-roots campaign headed by a multibillionaire, the evening’s fare was hot dogs and chili served from silver chafing dishes.

Perot was flanked on the stage by his wife, Margot, and their five children, in addition to running mate Adm. James B. Stockdale and his family.

Stockdale, a former prisoner of war who is now a scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, gave an eloquent summation of the Perot movement.

“We have watched Ross Perot as he changed forever presidential politics in America. No more will candidates pay homage to political gurus, political pundits, those supposedly learned filters. No more,” said Stockdale.

Stockdale predicted that the Perot volunteer movement, known as United We Stand, America, would evolve into a viable third party.

Perot won an estimated 18% of the popular vote nationwide, the highest total of any independent candidate since Teddy Roosevelt won 28% in 1912 as leader of his Bull Moose Party.

He also redefined the role of television in politics, using talk shows and tens of millions of dollars worth of paid advertising to promote himself and his ideas.

And although his harsh prescriptions for reducing the deficit and restoring American economic competitiveness proved too strong for the majority of the public, he elevated these concerns to the top of the national agenda.

Perot appeared on the ballroom stage at 9:15 p.m. CST in order to precede Bush’s concession address from Houston at 10 p.m. He told his supporters not to dwell on defeat, but to redouble their efforts to cleanse American politics of the inertia of the past.

“Spend about 10 minutes getting over being frustrated that your candidate didn’t win, then take all of this enormous creativity and talent that you have displayed and let’s make our country work at the national, state, county, city and local and neighborhood level and in every single school across the country,” he said.

But, Perot added, “The fact that we will go anywhere, anytime, and do anything that’s good for our country and help the new Administration as an organization, does not mean we will compromise our principles or integrity in terms of what this organization stands for.”