Ross Perot has a simple answer to Democratic and Republican critics who say the billionaire Texas businessman is trying to buy his way into the White House: They're absolutely right.
"I'm buying it for the people because they can't afford it - you made it too expensive," Perot said Thursday in California as he opened a three-day campaign swing that included Denver Friday and Boston on Saturday.Perot's direct assault on those who rebuke his wealth and largely self-financed campaign is part of a stump speech that's both folksy and funny, with a good dose of criticism for both President Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton.
But it contains few specifics on how Perot would handle the nation's problems.
Instead, the speech is a series of slogans and cliches promising change: quotations from Winston Churchill and Lech Walesa mixed with the credo of the fictional Three Musketeers, "One for all and all for one."
Perot's road show, unusual for a candidate who has campaigned mostly through television, is taking him to states where volunteers say they have gathered enough petition signatures to place him on the November ballot. At the events in California and Denver, Perot had a film crew gathering material for television commercials, including interviews with supporters.
He is over the 20-state mark now, counting the states celebrating the end of their petition drives next week. And although he has still not formally announced his candidacy, Perot took time Thursday to urge supporters not to let up.
"You have sent the two parties a message," he told California supporters who gathered more than 1 million petition signatures even though they needed just 135,000. "You in California have changed politics in this country - I hope permanently."
As he tries to pre-empt others from using his wealth against him
See PEROT on A2
as an issue, Perot is trying to turn the tables on Bush and Clinton.
He tells audiences they should closely watch every minute of the party conventions this summer - not because of any support for Bush or Clinton but because their tax dollars are paying for them.
And Perot tries to play down spending his own money on the campaign by saying that Bush and Clinton have spent $17 million apiece so far to his $1.4 million.
"And we're ahead," Perot said with a smile in California's heavily Republican Orange County. "So if they want to say we bought it, I say we bought it wholesale."
It's one of Perot's most reliable laugh lines but it's not a meaningful comparison.
Unlike Perot, Bush and Clinton competed in months of primary contests. And Perot's figure does not include spending from volunteers who say they are quick to dig into their wallets for campaign expenses but often slow or remiss in documenting them.