Directing most of his criticism at President Clinton, Ross Perot campaigned this weekend in Florida and Ohio, two battleground states heatedly contested by the president and Republican Bob Dole.
Both major parties are "bought and paid for by foreign interests and special interests," Perot said Saturday at a rally of 1,200 people inside a music hall in Warren, Ohio."Is there no sense of decency left in this country? Is there no sense of shame?" Perot asked. "There must not be if you look at those polls, right?"
He criticized Clinton's fund-raising practices, said the Whitewater investigation involving Hillary Clinton had created "a really awkward situation," and suggested that the president puts U.S. troops in danger to "get a bump in the approval ratings."
"He is a really good actor, he makes a really great show. Keep in mind that running this great nation is not show business," Perot said.
At one point, Perot said: "I can't understand why American women are crazy about this guy."
Although polls strongly suggest otherwise, Perot and his supporters insist he's not here to play spoiler. He rejected Dole's bid last week for him to drop out and endorse the Republican, and Perot seemed to be savoring the renewed attention to his own campaign.
"Don't tell the pollsters that you're coming," Perot urged a cheering Pensacola, Fla., audience after he laid out his own scenario for a surprise victory.
Although some tracking polls last week indicated Perot is creeping upward, his numbers in most polls remain in single digits, less than half his 19 percent nationwide showing in the 1992 election.
His campaign officials and supporters argue that the polls are misleading and can't gauge the kind of disaffected-voter support that is his base.
"It's a silent vote," said John Varga, a retired steelworker in the Youngstown, Ohio, area. "People don't talk about it much, but you'd be surprised at how much support he has."
One day after Dole campaigned in Pensacola, Perot was there in the Florida Panhandle region, where the military-and-veteran vote Perot courts is heavy. In the evening, he went to vote-rich south Florida, and a rally here Saturday was in an area where people such as Varga - who worked the last shift when his steel mill shut down in 1980 - are receptive to Perot's warnings about U.S. jobs and trade moving overseas.
This week, Perot is scheduled to be at rallies in seven states, most at college campuses from Virginia Tech to Northwestern University to Stanford University. Running mate Pat Choate has also been criss-crossing the country separately.
Perot, in recent speeches, has described his potential voting coalition as young voters alarmed about the dire economic future he warns about; small-business owners and their employees whom the Texas billionaire says he understands because those are his roots; veterans and military voters he reminds of his history of active support for them; and the disaffected people who often don't bother to vote for anyone.
"If anybody out there feels cynical, disillusioned or powerless - don't," Perot said Friday, contending that his new Reform Party would clean up government corruption and tackle the pressing the problems of the federal debt and deficit.