Perot Says His Candidacy Altered Political Landscape

In an apparent preemptive strike before President Bush’s prime time news conference, businessman Ross Perot told a gathering of supporters Thursday that his undeclared presidential candidacy already has changed the political landscape of the nation.

“Three months ago, I was worried nobody’d listen,” Perot told a crowd in Las Vegas. “Now they’ve all got hearing aids. It’s just really fascinating, isn’t it, that suddenly we’ve got the President of the United States interested in a balanced budget.”

To sporadic cheers, he went on to note that other candidates had adopted his electronic town hall concept and even followed his lead in touting their messages on evening talk shows.

“Last night, six senators were on television saying we got to balance the budget and that we need to have all three candidates explain how they’re going to control the debt and balance the budget--and I think that’s wonderful,” he said. “Isn’t it odd that you had to go through all this to get their attention?”

The message, delivered to an estimated 1,000 supporters who are gathering signatures to put him on the Nevada ballot, was vintage Perot--part politician, part populist and part revivalist. He hammered at his primary theme--the need to stimulate job growth, expand the base of taxpayers, rebuild America and reduce crime.

To emphasize the latter, he brought to the podium a 7-year-old girl named Blair Pebbles, who he said had been doused with a Coke by a Perot opponent while she was helping collect signatures in a petition drive.

“If you can live with this great country being the most violent, crime-ridden nation in the industrialized world. . . ,” he said, the thought trailing off.

He evoked the biggest applause when he asked, “How many people here today can remember when the words ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ were the world’s standard for excellence? Both parties are bear-hugging everything we’ve been saying up to a point. But nobody has crossed the line and started to talk about rebuilding America, reindustrializing America and making the words ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ the world’s standard for excellence again.

“Believe it or not, if you look at how our government is organized, it’s all organized to fight the Cold War,” he said. “Day One, we’ll reorganize it to rebuild America. I promise you that.”

Perot, who has vowed to spend at least $100 million of his own money if he runs, attacked the Democrats and Republicans who charge that he is simply a billionaire businessman trying to buy the White House.

“They’re all upset about my buying this race for you,” he said, adding that his unannounced campaign has spent $1.4 million so far, about a tenth of the amount spent in the last three months by President Bush and his likely Democratic opponent, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.