Word: perots
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Fast-forward 12 years, and Baker's strategy is on full display. That it has so far failed miserably says nothing about the final outcome, and Ross Perot offers one last chance for success. Consider the state of play till now and what the nation will probably see this month -- on television, on the stump and especially in the debates. To date, none of the attacks on Bill Clinton's character have stuck. Voters' fears about the economy have outlasted the mud. "We have absolutely no credibility on domestic matters," concedes a Bush aide, "and Clinton is seen as Reagan...
Enter Ross Perot, a paranoid hoist by his own self-regard who could nonetheless end up as Bush's secret weapon. Most observers are focusing on the state-by-state matchups -- whom Perot will hurt more in which key states, a crystal-ball exercise whose only safe conclusion at this point is that Perot hurts either Clinton or Bush or both or neither. Meanwhile, Baker & Co. believe that victory requires blowing the current campaign dynamic across the board; surgical strikes won't do. "If Clinton fractures anywhere, he will fracture everywhere," says a Bush campaign official. "Perot serves that possibility...
...Perot will of course play this role with relish. It's his only card, the ticket to rehabilitating his reputation. A few Republicans are fretting (Perot's an "egotistical pest," says former Education Secretary Bill Bennett), but the party's big guns are smartly encouraging Perot to follow his instincts: "If Ross Perot's re-entry puts even more focus on the federal deficit," says Senator Bob Dole, "it will be a plus for everyone . . ." Thus, in the debates, Bush will defend his record, but he will gladly take the hit as long as Perot swipes equally at Clinton, which...
...bird's answer is unrecorded. But on Thursday, the man who had been / written off as "the yellow Ross of Texas" -- billionaire businessman Ross Perot -- ruffled a few feathers of his own by dramatically re-entering the race he quit on July 16. The next day, the logjam over debates burst as negotiators for the Bush and Clinton camps announced that three presidential face-offs and one vice-presidential meeting would take place between Sunday, Oct. 11, and Monday...
...expects Perot to win the election -- a CNN/Gallup poll taken the day before his re-entry gave the Texan only 7%, against 35% for Bush and 52% for Clinton -- but he has the potential to swing some key states into one column or the other and thus influence the electoral vote tally. Given Clinton's commanding lead, it is possible that Perot's reappearance act will have no effect on the outcome. But it offered the Republicans an unexpected break and a chance to beat the odds. "The race wasn't going anywhere for us," said a Bush campaign official...