"It's run more top-down now," Hubbard says."But," he adds quickly, "it's still a bottom-upmovement. It's 98 percent grass roots."
But many cynics wonder which "people" arerumbling from the bottom for Perot.
"If populism involves an appeal to the masses,that's what Perot is attempting to do," saysTrumbull Professor of American History Donald H.Fleming. "But his constituency, as far as one canfigure it out, isn't working people. It doesn'tsound to me like the people--the 'plainfolks'--are offered anything by Perot."
For Perot's critics, the oxymoronic idea of a"radical middle," as the Perot movement has beendescribed, isn't one that can be likened to theempowerment of the poor by past populists.
"It's never been clear to me that his appeal isto the plain folk--people at the bottom of theeconomic and social ranks," Fleming says.
So who are they?
"I don't know. Dentists. People from theprofessional ranks and above the working class,"Fleming muses.