Bush’s aides are praying for a miracle, but so far all they’ve got is Ross Perot. The Texas billionaire’s latest flirtation with presidential politics has the Bush campaign hoping, wishfully perhaps, that he can scramble the race. “Maybe it will be like we’re starting from scratch,” says a senior official. The Bush campaign is on its knees begging for Perot’s supporters. On Monday, when Perotistas from around the country gather in Dallas to await word from the leader, they will be wooed by a Bush delegation worthy of greeting a head of state. National-security adviser Brent Scowcroft and campaign chairman Robert Teeter will be among those trying not to vent their spleen about Perot. “My own private view is we ought to tell the guy to go blow,” says a Bush aide.
The Bush men won’t be the only ones kowtowing in Dallas. The Clinton campaign is aiming for an even higher score on the pander-meter. Clinton’s delegation matches Bush’s groveler for groveler, with former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe and campaign chairman Mickey Kantor. The campaign has calculated that Clinton agrees with 130 of the 146 proposals in Perot’s book, “United We Stand.” (They don’t mention that he’s opposed to the ones that would really inflict pain, like a 50-centa-gallon gas-tax increase.) Asked if Perot would make a good cabinet secretary, veep candidate Al Gore gushed that he would make “an effective member of anybody’s team.”
Perot sees himself as the grand arbiter of this race. Does anybody else? NEWSWEEK’S Poll shows Perot languishing at 9 percent. As Perot makes a fresh round of talk shows this week, he will mournfully declare that he wanted to stay out of politics, but that Bush and Clinton are forcing him back in by failing to face up to the tough choices on the federal deficit. Privately, both sides believe Perot’s concern for the deficit is a smoke screen for his ego needs. “He doesn’t want ‘quitter’ on his tombstone,” says a House Democrat. As usual, Perot will seek maximum publicity with minimum scrutiny. He won’t hold press conferences or grant interviews, except for TV talk shows. He’ll buy his way into voters’ homes with 30-second to 30-minute ads that have been in the can since summer. But he may have trouble controlling the negative stories that drove him out of the race in July.
Publicly, Clinton’s aides shrug at the prospect of Perot’s re-entry. But they fear that he could interrupt Clinton’s orderly march to victory. Buoyed by the polls, Clinton has settled into a comfortable, conflictaverse routine. “Stay on course, keep smiling, look strong,” says a top aide. By focusing the voter’s attention on the deficit, Perot could highlight Clinton’s biggest political liability: his membership in the Tax and Spend Party.
Bush is eagerly trying to exploit these doubts about Clinton. In his first negative commercial, unveiled last week, Bush portrays Clinton in speeded-up footage as a fast talker who has boosted taxes on the middle class. The lo road/ lite spot is done with humor, evidence of Bush’s concern about getting tagged as the villain in the air wars. On a trip through Ohio last weekend, Bush claimed Clinton would have to tax individuals making as little as $28,000-not just the “rich” with incomes more than $200,000-to raise the revenue he has promised. But Bush’s numbers don’t add up, either, and he’s got an even bigger problem with Perot, who has a longstanding disdain for the president. In closely contested states Bush must win-Texas, Florida and North Carolina-Perot could drain away enough votes to give them to Clinton. If Perot is allowed to participate in the debates, they could become two-against-one Bush Bash-A-Thons.
That is, if there are any debates. There are big risks for both Clinton and Bush climbing into the ring, either alone or with Perot. Clinton could wind up looking like the Big Spender, while Bush could appear unpresidential. The Democrats are in no rush to blow their lead. Clinton wants the debate to be man to man, without reporters acting as interrogators. Bush wants the reporters there, in hopes they’ll throw a bean ball at Clinton or at least give Bush time to think by slowing the pace with their windy questions. So far, the debate over the debate format has produced an impasse. But Bush may, in the end, be left with little choice. Down 10 points in the polls, he will have to take his chances, even if it means debating on Clinton’s terms–and with Perot sniping at him from the rear.
