Word: perot
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Clinton did have his reasons. He and Gore had been trying to find some whiz- bang final event that would impress an apathetic public. They were intrigued by White House poll findings suggesting that for all the fervor of his supporters, Perot also arouses considerable antipathy -- so much so that public support for NAFTA rises sharply when people find out the jug-eared Texan is against it. Maybe, they thought, the way to galvanize public support would be to remind people vividly who was leading the charge against NAFTA...
...late October, Gore challenged Perot to a debate on Larry King's interview show. Hardly anyone noticed, and the idea seemed dead. But then Clinton went on what amounted to a campaign swing for NAFTA; after he had finished a speech to factory workers in Lexington, Kentucky, last Thursday, the President, in his best jaw-jutting, finger-pointing style, issued a dare: he recalled Gore's challenge and said, "Let's see if he ((Perot)) takes...
...Perot was delighted. Sure, he said, I'll debate -- Gore, Clinton, both together, "anytime, anywhere." Specifically he proposed three debates, at venues that just happened to be previously scheduled Perot rallies. White House aides were flabbergasted and far from pleased by their boss's bravado. Complained one: "There hasn't been enough oxygen for Perot, and now we've gone and given him a whole lot more oxygen." For a while on Friday, some Clinton aides were suggesting, hopefully, that maybe negotiations on time and place would fail and no debate would come off. But Clinton and Perot's reciprocal...
...supposed to be a White House media event last Wednesday; so far as the public noticed, he might just as well have convened a meeting of stamp collectors. Indeed, it may have been annoyance at his failure to catch the people's ear that prompted Clinton to dare Perot the next day. And that did, for almost the first time, suddenly put NAFTA on all the TV news and talk shows and all the front pages...
...showdown thus escalated what were for Clinton already immensely high stakes. The President initially was slow to put on much of a drive for NAFTA, which was originally negotiated by George Bush. He let the debate be dominated by Perot and others, principally labor unions who fear a loss of jobs to low- wage Mexican competition. But now the President has made the NAFTA vote one of the defining moments of his Administration and launched an all-out campaign to win. He is opposed by one of the strangest assortments of public figures ever to find themselves in one another...