Perot Promotes The Reform Party, Himself

DALLAS (AllPolitics, March 21) -- He's baaack.....! As if to prove politics hates a vacuum, just as Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) clinched the GOP nomination, Texas billionaire Ross Perot hit the airwaves across the country today issuing campaign-style plugs for his Reform Party, bashing free trade and dropping more hints he's poised for another White House run.

"I'll cut the grass, I'll take out the trash, I'll do anything to make sure we solve these problems and pass on a great country to our children and grandchildren," Perot told interviewers in Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada and Oklahoma (182K AIFF or WAV sound and 132K AIFF or WAV sound). On the North American Free Trade Agreement: "It has been chaos," he declared. "Promises made, promises broken."

Vintage Ross Perot, but will it take him to the White House? Recent surveys suggest not. A new CNN/USA Today poll of 1,088 Americans showed 46 percent with an unfavorable view of the Texan, while 44 percent had a favorable view. The margin of error was +/- 3 percentage points.

While no major leader has shown the willingness or the wallet, Perot insists he won't necessarily be the Reform Party's presidential candidate, and he spent time explaining his party's mission to endorse candidates in all congressional races. "We will provide the swing vote to put 100 percent of House and Senate candidates in office," Perot said. Reform Party candidates will pledge to run positive, issue-oriented campaigns, Perot detailed. "Instead of train wrecks, government shutdowns and promises broken, we will have a united team working solidly and rationally to solve this country's problems," he said. (215K AIFF or WAV sound)

Dole circumspectly said on Wednesday that a Perot run "wouldn't make it easier" for him to defeat President Bill Clinton next fall. Polls suggest Perot would do to Dole in 1996 exactly what he did to former president George Bush in 1992: siphon off a substantial bloc of Republicans, throwing the election to Clinton.

Perot is scheduled to appear on CNN's "Larry King Live" at 9 p.m. EST Friday. Four years ago, Perot opened the door to a presidential bid on King's show.

AllPolitics home page