Started out great. Ended badly when Ross went off the rails.

Musk starting off rails is promising.

The train will never leave the station.

Except for the "Ross Perot was well known to be a bit crazy and acted that way hard enough to throw the campaign." But a close-up view on his second run was that he was absolutely not willing to let the Reform Party evolve into a real party; it was a Top-Down Ross Perot project, full stop.

There were discussions in the press about whether Perot temporarily backing out because of threats against his family was paranoia, or real threats, or both.

Pat Buchanan grabbed it for a couple of years after that, though Trump tried to get their nomination in 2000, a fact he'd forgotten about (along with his 2012 run) when he won in 2016 and congratulated himself for winning "on my first try".