Suddenly Ross was for real. Bush and Clinton rolled up their final primaries last week, but Perot won the exit polls: they showed that he could actually take states like California and Ohio. By hiring Hamilton Jordan, who sneaked Jimmy Carter into the White House, and Ed Rollins, who helped keep Ronald Reagan there, Perot also polished a bipartisan image that offset the hypocrisy of entrusting himself to such inside handlers. Now his longhorn challenge promises to make him the most significant odd man out since Teddy Roosevelt and the Bull Moose insurgency in 1912. The making of Perot left Clinton scratching to recover his lost field position as the season’s Great Outsider, and it threatened the lock the GOP has held on the White House for the past 12 years. Studying the transformed landscape, that old trouper Richard Nixon said it might be dumb “to bet the ranch” on Perot, but “I wouldn’t bet against him.”
As a vehicle for protest, Perot has far more traction than Pat Buchanan or Jerry Brown. A NEWSWEEK Poll showed Bush and Clinton sucking for air just to keep up with him. Over the past two months, most of his gains have come at the president’s expense. Still, Perot’s own base remained unsteady. Five out of 10 Perot people said they weren’t voting for him so much as voting against the others. And two out of three said they wanted to know more about where their man stood–on just about everything.
Even so, it’s now advantage Perot. To win, both Bush and Clinton must offset the fury of voters who think Washington has become a political sump. Their next big photo ops are two conventions that no one even wants to watch. By contrast, Perot can spend the summer on a mediagenic Honk-for-Ross draft, playing his state-by-state petition drive for momentum, his electronic town halls for visibility and his 800 number for all it’s worth. He knows what he’s doing. Voters are in a throw-the-bastards-out convulsion. They are not just sending a message to Washington-it’s more like an ultimatum.
Newsweek Poll It the election we held today: 35% Perot 33% Bush 25% Clinton From the NEWSWEEK POLL of June 4-5, 1992
