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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1992-09-10
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THE WEEK, Page 19NATIONAfter the Riots, Politics As Usual
Bush and Clinton descend on L.A., Perot avoids tough questions
After months of penny-ante posturing, the stakes in the
presidential campaign moved sharply higher as Bush and Clinton
blew some rhetorical smoke over the volatile issues of race,
class and domestic neglect. So stark a reminder of the
challenges facing the nation might have helped focus an
erstwhile inchoate campaign. But neither candidate seized the
opportunity to demonstrate much leadership; instead they
bickered about the Great Society and settled for scoring some
political points.
Both men trounced their pesky primary opponents in North
Carolina, Indiana and the District of Columbia to move one step
closer to this fall's matchup. Arkansas Governor Clinton has 80%
of the delegates he needs for the Democratic nomination, while
Bush's coronation is already assured.
For his part, Ross Perot, still the wild card among the
Big Three, tried to scramble out of the political spotlight
with a self-imposed hiatus in his un-campaign. The Texas
billionaire, citing "saturation bombing" of his offices by the
press, beat a strategic retreat to search for answers to the
questions he should dread: his specific stands on the budget
deficit, health care, urban policy, international aid and every
other complex problem that elicits reams of position papers from
presidential hopefuls. This clever move comes at the right time,
just when the press is beginning to dig its unforgiving claws
into him. Last week the Associated Press reported that according
to papers from Richard Nixon's White House, Perot offered $50
million in 1969 to burnish the President's image. Perot denies
the allegation, saying, "I can't control what people scribble
on pads."
Nor can he control how the public feels about him, which
is, in a word, great. A poll in the crucial state of California
shows Perot in first place, followed by Bush and then the
Arkansas Governor. A national poll by the Times Mirror reveals
a close three-way race with the President, who, apparently stung
by his initial fumbling reaction to the riots, garnered 33%,
barely edging out his two challengers, who captured 30% each.
Such polls, however, measure only popularity, not
leadership, which so far remains in depressingly short supply.