Perot Refuses To Be Silenced

By Tony Clark/CNN

SAN FRANCISCO (AllPolitics, Oct. 7) -- Reform Party nominee Ross Perot says his absence from Sunday night's debate resulted in one thing: "They carefully avoided the serious problems."

Many observers thought a Perot appearance in the debate would have hurt Republican candidate Bob Dole. But when Perot spoke to about 2,000 doctors in San Francisco today, his toughest swipe was at President Bill Clinton.

"Can you believe that we have a president who has a number of associates who have gone to jail on financial issues that he was allegedly connected to and he will not look the American people in the eye and say, if you re-elect me as president, I will not use that power to pardon my friends," Perot said.(256K WAV sound)

Kept out of the debates, Perot tried to compete Sunday by airing a half-hour infomercial on ABC and responding to the debate on CNN's "Larry King Live." On the CNN program Perot said, "The core problem is that we have two parties that control our government."

But the two shows gave Perot only a fraction of the audience he would have gotten had he been on the stage in Hartford, Conn. And in the debate itself, there was only passing mention of Perot.

On Perot's pet issue of campaign finance reform, Clinton said during the debate, "I think the American people, including the Perot supporters, know that I've had a consistent record in favor of campaign finance reform."

Dole appealed to Perot supporters, saying, "The Perot voters who are looking for a home tonight ought to take a look at the Republican record."

Most debate viewers apparently didn't mind Perot's absence. A post-debate poll asked whether it would have been more useful in deciding who to vote for, had Perot been included. Nearly three-quarters said "no."

By this point in the campaign, Perot strategists expected Dole to be in third place and Clinton to be looking over his shoulder as Perot closed in.

Instead, Perot hasn't moved out of single-digits in the polls. He hasn't raised much outside campaign money and hasn't generated much support from voters. For perhaps the first time in his professional and political life, Perot is being ignored.

Perot Refuses To Be Silenced

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