Clinton Spars Cautiously With Possible Foe Perot : Politics: He forsakes his usual style of attack in an effort to prevail without offending the Texan’s backers.

He attacks President Bush with the unrelenting glee of a veteran boxer. But probable Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton is circling warily around his other potential general election foe, Texas billionaire Ross Perot.

Uncharacteristically for a candidate who has based his campaign on fighting back, Clinton has nurtured a decidedly uncertain, even passive approach to Perot. He mixes praise of Perot’s general themes with a dollop of criticism about the man--from which he quickly distances himself by blaming the gibes on Republicans.

It is an attempt to turn aside the Perot candidacy without offending those voters supporting him; voters the Clinton campaign hopes can be persuaded to side with the Arkansas governor if Perot ultimately decides not to launch an independent candidacy.

Days ago, for example, Clinton spoke via satellite to Teamsters Union leaders in San Francisco and spoke of Perot in words that moved seamlessly from praise to insult.

“I agree with a lot of what he says and a lot of what he says are things that I have actually tried to do in Arkansas . . . running government in a business-like fashion, making it more friendly to the taxpayers and the customers, making sure the books are balanced at the end of every year,” Clinton said. “So he and I see eye to eye on some things.”

Without missing a beat, he added, “Of course, you can see from the efforts of the past couple of days that the Republicans are trying to paint him as an insider, too, because he made so much of his money from government contracts and was so close to the White House from (President Richard M.) Nixon on. So we’ll just see.”

Actually, the questions about Perot’s previous involvement with government have come less from Republicans than from news stories as the media has begun to scrutinize the billionaire more extensively. But in political terms, the Clinton camp believes it makes sense to try to pin the accusations on the GOP--the better to alienate Perot supporters from them.

Perot poses problems for Clinton on several fronts.

Public opinion surveys have found he is increasingly popular among the disillusioned voters whom Clinton hoped to inspire. It also appears that at least for now, Perot has stolen from Clinton his preferred role as the agent of change.

And, just as the Democrat was hoping to regain positive momentum leading into the last of the primaries and the summer national conventions, Perot is monopolizing media and voter attention.

A drumbeat of polls in recent weeks has given the Clinton campaign reason to worry about Perot, despite the unformed nature of his candidacy. The surveys show Perot leading Clinton in many of the large states whose electoral votes are crucial to the outcome of the presidential race.

The Texas Poll, in early April, showed Perot leading Bush in their mutual home state, 35% to 30%, with Clinton third at 20%.

A California poll released by the Field Institute last week showed Perot with 37%, Bush at 31% and Clinton at 25%.

A poll of voters across the country released Saturday showed Perot leading Bush and Clinton, the first such national survey to put Perot ahead. In the poll for Time Magazine and CNN, 33% chose Perot as their choice for President, compared with 28% for Bush and 24% for Clinton.

Another national survey--this one by the Gallup Organization and due for release today --showed a tight three-way race, with Bush leading at 36%, Perot with 30% and Clinton at 29%.

Across the board, the surveys have shown that Perot is drawing not from one particular ideological sphere, but from a wide range of voters who believe the government is being run poorly, according to John Brennan, director of the Los Angeles Times Poll. That in itself limits the ability of either Clinton or Bush to attack him on philosophical grounds.

“If this is the way Perot’s candidacy is going to stay, it’s going to be hard to grab onto him in terms of ideology,” Brennan said.

But--and this is what the Clinton campaign is banking on--many of those same voters presumably are susceptible to entreaties from Clinton if Perot’s candidacy fails to materialize, he said.

“If Perot collapses for some reason, there’s still a lot of people who don’t like George Bush,” Brennan said.

Clinton’s frontal assaults on Perot have been rare. In late April, he questioned the Texan’s outsider status in three consecutive appearances in one day, pointing out that Perot has lobbied and made major contributions to elected officials and has also received government contracts.

But that was the exception. Now Clinton’s jabs are more gentle, and he recoils from suggestions that he is being critical of Perot.

At a town meeting in the Inland Empire community of Ontario last week, Clinton appeared to be ridiculing Perot’s recently announced decision to take two months to formulate policy positions.

“He says, ‘I haven’t been part of either one of those parties,’ ” Clinton said. “ ‘Vote for me; I know nothing about them. Vote for me, then I’ll . . . go off and spend 60 days and decide what I’m for.’ ”

But asked later if he was suggesting Perot lacked credibility, Clinton snapped: “I didn’t say that. I didn’t criticize him in any way. I just pointed out that his standing in the polls is evidence of how profoundly disillusioned the American people are with the political system.”

Clinton added, “People are so disillusioned with anybody who has been in politics that they don’t care whether you know anything about the issues and if what you say makes sense.”

Clinton and his political aides continue to profess that Perot is riding high now only because he has not entered the fray of a campaign, and that his standing can only decline if he actually decides to run.

Once he is in the race, Clinton has said, Perot’s positions will become more clear and he will be subject to even more criticism.

“When the facts get out, I think we’ll be fine,” Clinton said Friday. “I just can’t worry about it.”