Perot Lambastes the Two-Party System

Reverting to his attack-dog, populist style of four years ago, Texas billionaire Ross Perot on Wednesday indicted the two-party political system as a corrupt, self-serving institution that cannot stand the heat of examination by his campaign or independent-minded voters.

In an address to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, the Reform Party candidate for president accused Republicans in particular of trying to exclude him from any campaign debates because he will shed light on federal problems that the major-party candidates choose to ignore.

“This is a blatant display of power by the Republicans and the large donors who fund their campaigns and then get rewarded handsomely,” Perot said in a 35-minute address.

“I expect that probably we should bring in Bosnia and Haiti to send vote-watchers to help us clean out the election process here,” he said.

Perot used the appearance before Bay Area business and professional people to lash out at the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

The commission recommended on Tuesday that the 1996 debates be limited to President Clinton and Republican nominee Bob Dole after determining that Perot had no “realistic” chance of being elected president.

The decision of the 10-member commission is not final because all debate arrangements are subject to negotiation and agreement by the major-party presidential campaigns. While the commission does not actually control who appears in debates, its recommendation against Perot strengthened the negotiating position of Dole, who does not want the Reform Party candidate to participate.

Dole’s advisors believe that their candidate needs one-on-one confrontations with Clinton to shake up a race in which the GOP nominee currently trails.

Perot reiterated what his aides had announced on Tuesday: that he would bring a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking to delay any debates until his case had a “full and fair hearing.” Political and legal experts said they do not believe that Perot has a compelling legal case.

Delegations representing Clinton and Dole have been negotiating debate formats and times. They are not expected to meet again until Friday at the earliest and may not resolve their disagreements until next week, officials of both campaigns said.

Perot argued that the process leading up to the commission’s decision excluded the most important element involved, the voters.

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“The American voters don’t have a voice,” Perot said, arguing that polls indicate that as many as 76% of voters believe that he should be included in the debates. The same polls, of course, also show that Perot has little support--between 5% and 10%--the basis for the commission’s statement that he has no realistic chance of winning the White House.

Perot noted that his popular support “rocketed” after the 1992 debates, and he claimed that 40% of the voters participating in exit polls that year said they would have voted for Perot if they had “voted their conscience.” Neither of the national exit polls conducted that year--one by the Los Angeles Times Poll, the other by a consortium of newspaper and television networks, asked such a question.

“Now do you start to understand why they don’t want this cur dog back in the debates again?” Perot asked. By comparison with him, Clinton and Dole are “just two registered puppies,” he said.

Through his speech, and while responding to written questions afterward, Perot referred to “Washington’s corrupt practices.”

At one point, he said members of Congress, while many are well-meaning, are “bought, paid for and owned by special interests that give the big money to their campaigns. They’re caught in a very, very corrupt system.”

The audience, which included a Perot rooting section of about 50 people, applauded spiritedly when he talked about the debate issue. But most of the regular club members sat silently and did not applaud when Perot shifted to familiar speech themes, such as the federal debt.

Perot contended that the two parties are working together to manipulate voters into believing that a vote for him would be wasted because he has no chance of winning.

And he also faulted the voters for allowing themselves to be persuaded what to think and how to vote.

Perot said voters should “get off your you-know-whats and stop being manipulated and act like you own this country.”

And with a gibe at Clinton, Perot added: “I suggest you stop falling overboard for someone who says, ‘I feel your pain’ and start looking at people who are going to do something about that pain.”

That comment came in response to 10 written questions submitted by members of the audience while they were eating lunch.