NEWS ANALYSIS : Perot’s ‘Shared Sacrifice’ a Hard Sell in Hard Times : Campaign: Struggling middle class likely will shrink from his deficit-cutting plan as he tries to cast a wider net.

To expand his support beyond a hard-core band of followers, independent presidential candidate Ross Perot is attempting a seemingly impossible feat: persuading disgruntled middle-class voters that they have not yet suffered enough.

“Shared sacrifice,” the central theme of Perot’s born-again presidential crusade, is based on the notion that Americans are so disgusted with the status quo that they would be willing to join forces in an effort akin to the national mobilization during World War II to reduce the federal deficit and bring about economic recovery.

While it is an appealing message to the Perot die-hards who are fed up with both the Republican and Democratic parties, most political professionals believe that the Texas billionaire’s blueprint for new taxes and cuts in entitlement programs has limited appeal to the already struggling voters that Perot sees as his natural constituency.

“The number of people who are running forward and saying, ‘I’m for shared sacrifice’ are few and far between,” noted Lewis L. Gould, political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. “Whether Mr. Perot is ahead of the curve or whether he’s going to be delivering an unwelcome message remains to be seen.”

In his maneuvering for the presidency earlier this year, Perot succeeded in tapping into the anti-incumbent sentiment in the country --a widely held view among voters of all demographic groups that the accepted political prescriptions have failed. These were the people who, in the words of Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, “wanted to shake up politics.”

And while Perot retains the support of some of these early supporters, polls show that his sudden retreat from the race and re-entry have cost him much of his original constituency. An overwhelming majority of voters now tell the pollsters that they have a negative view of this mercurial Texan.

In his renewed bid for the presidency, according to Orson Swindle, Perot’s spokesman, the independent candidate is trying to woo a potentially wider audience than that to which he appealed to earlier this year.

As Swindle explained it: “The segment of America we’ll appeal to is Middle America--sane Middle America, not extremist on either side of the political spectrum, the hard-working middle class of America that’s had to work two jobs in order to make ends meet, the ones that are paying the taxes to run this burgeoning government we’ve got, the people who are suffering most in economic hard times, the people who do not have a special-interest voice in the way our government is run and the people who are victims of special-interest-run government.”

But would those Middle Americans who are already suffering severe financial hardship be willing to support a candidate who is proposing a 50-cent-a-gallon increase in gasoline taxes, limited tax deductions for mortgage interest payments and higher taxes on Social Security benefits?

Greenberg, for one, suggested that the people who are inclined to support Perot, who are largely lower-middle-class conservatives with blue-collar jobs, are the last people who want to hear about financial sacrifice.

“Perot’s message is likely to be completely unacceptable to his base support,” said the pollster.

Greenberg explained that while former Democratic presidential candidate Paul E. Tsongas was briefly able to appeal to upscale voters with a message of economic sacrifice similar to Perot’s, people in lower economic categories who might be inclined to vote for Perot tend to believe that they have already sacrificed enough and that the burden should now be placed on the rich.

Even Swindle acknowledged that Middle America has trouble grasping the concepts that Perot is trying to drive home. “It’s a difficult thing for the American people to comprehend a $4-trillion deficit.”

Perot’s message also may be harder for low-income people to swallow when it comes from an extremely wealthy man who has enough money to run for President without seeking contributions. Swindle was quick to point out that while Perot has “compassion” for Middle American voters, he is not one of them.

Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, appearing Sunday on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” ridiculed Perot’s proposals as anathema to the average voter. “It’s austerity, pain. It’s based on the view that the government doesn’t collect enough taxes.”

So far, Perot, in appearances since he joined the race, has not discussed the specifics of his economic plan, which are contained in a new paperback titled “United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country.” But he has insisted that there is broad support for his message of shared sacrifice.

“Everywhere I go,” he told interviewer Barbara Walters Friday, “ordinary folks who work hard for a living will pull me aside and say: ‘Ross, I’m willing to do my share. Just make sure it’s fair.’ ”

Over the next month, Swindle said, Perot will detail his economic plan for voters, emphasizing the need for new taxes. He said that it has fallen to Perot to be the bearer of bad tidings because neither President Bush nor Democrat Bill Clinton is willing to tell Americans what must be done to cure the nation’s ills.

While Perot is clearly accurate when he says that neither Bush nor Clinton is focusing on the deficit, several experts questioned whether voters will accept the independent candidate’s contention that the major party candidates are not talking about the issues that matter to Americans.

“This has been a lively, combative, toe-to-toe election,” noted Gould.

Polls conducted since Perot entered the race on Thursday show very few voters previously committed to either Bush or Clinton have switched to the independent candidate. Still, there is a lively debate going on among political professionals over whether his candidacy will hurt one major party candidate more than the other.

Swindle said that he thinks Perot will cut deeper into Clinton’s support among those voters who are attracted by a message of change. But Greenberg, who has been working for the Clinton campaign, argues that Perot’s core constituents are predominantly conservatives who would otherwise vote for Bush.

Perot’s biggest disadvantage may be simply that he appears to have no realistic chance of winning the presidency.

Gould, who has studied other independent presidential candidacies, said there always comes a point in the later stages of these contests when some supporters shift to a major party candidate because the insurgent seems headed for defeat.

“People ask themselves, ‘Who has a realistic chance of becoming President?’ ” he said. “Then they decide they would only be throwing their vote away to go for someone who cannot win.”

Today on the Trail . . .

Gov. Bill Clinton campaigns in Daytona, Orlando and Ocala, Fla.

President Bush is in Washington, D.C.

Ross Perot has no public events scheduled.

Vice President Dan Quayle campaigns in Tacoma, Wash., Palo Alto and Los Angeles.

TELEVISION

Clinton and Sen. Al Gore are guests on CNN’s “Larry King Live” at 6 p.m. PDT.

President Bush is a guest on ABC’s “Good Morning America” at 7:30 a.m. PDT.

Ross Perot is a guest on NBC’s “Today” at 7 a.m. PDT.