Economist Pat Choate, joining Ross Perot's presidential ticket eight weeks before the election, said Wednesday that he's confident they'll be included in TV debates that he said will change voters' views of Perot as a long shot.
America shouldn't expect to see either of them hurtling from town to town in a traditional presidential campaign, Choate indicated. He said they would continue to emphasize the 30-minute television infomericals that Perot has been running.Asked how the Reform Party candidates could hope to win, with polls showing Perot attracting the support of about 5 percent of voters, Choate said on NBC's "Today" show:
"The Perot campaign has only begun with the infomercials. As people listen to these long-form programs, listen to what Ross Perot and I have to say, and as we go into the debates, which I'm confident that we will since 70-plus percent of the American people want us in those debates, those impressions will change very, very quickly."
Choate, announced by Perot as his running mate Tuesday night, melds views on core issues such as trade and government power that are similar to Perot's with a distaste for the "razzmatazz" of the campaign trail.
"Rather than just do razzmatazz and sort of the old traditional political campaign, we're going to do talk shows where people can talk with us," Choate said Tuesday night in a bit of must-see TV for Perot watchers.
Choate is a trade protectionist and was a strong Perot ally in opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement. He was Perot's coach for a televised NAFTA debate the Texas businessman had with Vice President Al Gore.
Although he's a campaign novice and a second-string pick, Choate knows how Washington - and Pe-rot's mind - work. But can the bearded addition to the Reform Party ticket attract new voters to the new party?
Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas political scientist who has studied Perot, said that it's too soon to say whether Choate was a good pick, but that people might not forget that Perot sought other established politicians first.
"His name is not well-known, so that makes him a neutral at best," Buchanan said of Choate. "Inevitably, that calls to mind that Perot had difficulty getting better people running with him."
Perot, who announced the choice of his No. 2 Tuesday night during a paid 30-minute in-fo-mer-cial on CBS, reportedly had been spurned by several political figures, including David Boren, a former Oklahoma governor and U.S. senator, and Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio.
Choate said on CNN's "Larry King Live" immediately after the televised announcement that he didn't mind being a later choice. "Thank goodness one or two other people didn't take it," he said.
Asked whether he was ready to lead the nation, Choate said, "I wouldn't do it unless I thought I could do an outstanding job."
Perot and Choate co-wrote a book predicting that the North American Free Trade Agreement would cause a flood of U.S. jobs overseas and put pressure on U.S. employers to keep wages and benefits down. Choate's work also was cited during the Republican presidential primaries by Pat Buchanan, who is a fierce critic of the NAFTA and GATT trade agreements.