Perot Debates Himself On CNN

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Oct. 6) -- Reform Party nominee Ross Perot tried to make up for lost time tonight, appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live" after his exclusion from the presidential debate.

Perot was asked many of the same questions posed to President Bill Clinton and Republican candidate Bob Dole. But, unlike the main party candidates, Perot clearly was not bound by time constraints or an opponent's rebuttals.

The feisty Reform Party candidate repeatedly picked on the debate performance of Clinton and Dole.

"I'm so sick of superficial discussions on the critical problem," Perot said, answering a question about his position on school choice. He said the development of a child's brain was the more important issue.

Perot's characteristic enthusiasm for his answers and statistics was partially contained by King's prodding his guest to stay on track and say what he would do about the issues as president.

"We're going to cut out all this glib talk," Perot said.

"We know we have these huge problems. Neither party will admit that they did it, but they were the only two people around, so maybe they both did it." (256K WAV sound)

Perot said he should have been allowed to debate Clinton and Dole, even though he's getting only about five percent in the polls, because his party met all the objective criteria of the Commission on Presidential Debates. He claimed three-quarters of the people wanted him in the debate, but he was shut out by status quo partisan politics.

The Texas billionaire sounded familiar themes, saying choice U.S. jobs were being shipped overseas, that the solution to drug problems lies in family discipline, and that people must take responsibility for their actions.

"If we're not, and we're little lambs lost in the woods, but we would be good if we had someone in Washington to look after us; we are going down the tubes, because the average life of a democracy is 200 years," Perot said. (256K WAV sound)

Medicare is more complex than putting a man on the moon, he said, and elections go on too long and cost too much. "We can get the job done in four months."

"If Washington is so capable of fixing things, I would like for them to prove it by straightening out Washington, D.C.," he said.

Along with Perot, CNN invited four other independent presidential candidates to appear on the special edition of "Larry King Live." They included Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, Libertarian candidate Harry Browne, Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin and Howard Phillips of the U.S. Taxpayer's Party.

Perot Buys Time To Give Message

Earlier, Perot conducted a mock interview with his vice-presidential candidate in a TV infomercial two hours before the presidential debates.

Perot and Pat Choate came to a simple conclusion: they agreed all that was needed to reform Washington was to vote for the Reform Party ticket. (288K WAV sound)

The infomercial included a series of Perot's trademark cue cards, presented in a relatively sophisticated format of red, white and blue graphics filling the screen.

Perot ranged freely among topics, and he repeatedly suggested he was blocked from the debate to keep a lid on his ideas. Among other things, he called for an end to the Electoral College system, and he said voting should be moved to weekends.

The cost of the 30-minute block of air time on ABC was not immediately available.

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