For the Record

Has Ross Perot peaked? In Washington Post/ABC News poll in early June he garnered 36 per cent support, versus 30 per cent for George Bush and 26 per cent for Bill Clinton. But late June WP/ABC poll shows Clinton ahead, with 33, versus 31 for Perot and 28 for Bush… . In mid-June poll conducted by Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press, General Norman Schwarzkopf-who is not a candidate-did better than Perot. This result, Times Mirror opined, shows “a yearning for a non-political alternative.” … Over 75 per cent of network coverage of Perot has been favorable, but print media are more skeptical. New York Times has been unfavorable from the start; now New York Daily News has led off an editorial on Perot’s complaints of Bush’s criticism with “Listen up and stop whining, Perot.” It went on to quote University of Texas political scientist Walter Dean Burnham as calling Perot “a great big gasbag.” . . . David Broder saw Perot’s call-in TV shows as an end run around a threatening establishment press, including his own Washington Post. “More and more people are beginning to see us as ‘insiders,’ ” he admitted, “preoccupied with the gossip and maneuvers of the politicians we have come to know only too well.” … Paul Tsongas piped up with sage advice: “It’s up to him from now on to see if his peak continues or if he goes into a slow decline.”

In run-up to Democratic Convention, Clinton forces are bound to be cheered by that WP/ABC poll. Their campaign is in deep financial trouble, with debts totalling almost $4 million at last tally. Of that debt, Democratic strategist Michael Berman had said: “This is a three-way race, and while there’s a lot of potential there for Clinton, the average donor doesn’t see it that way.” . . . Clinton’s new life in polls is attributed to favorable response to his economic plan-WP/ABC found that 51 per cent who were familiar with the plan approve of it-and to his attack on Sister Souljah. . . . Political gossip centers on his choice of a running-mate. Clinton, reports Jeffrey H. Birnbaum of the Wall Street Journal, has narrowed choice to four: Sens. Al Gore (Tenn.), Harris Wofford (Pa.), and Robert Kerrey (Neb.), and Rep. Lee Hamilton (Ind.)…. With N.Y. Gov. Mario Cuomo no longer in the running for second spot, recent Supreme Court rulings give strength to Clinton’s hinting that he has other plans for Cuomo, like a seat on Supreme Court: “He is a legal scholar who also understands the impact of the law on real people’s lives.”

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Has Ross Perot peaked? In Washington Post/ABC News poll in early June he garnered 36 per cent support, versus 30 per cent for George Bush and 26 per cent for Bill Clinton. But late June WP/ABC poll shows Clinton ahead, with 33, versus 31 for Perot and 28 for Bush… . In mid-June poll conducted by Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press, General Norman Schwarzkopf-who is not a candidate-did better than Perot. This result, Times Mirror opined, shows “a yearning for a non-political alternative.” … Over 75 per cent of network coverage of Perot has been favorable, but print media are more skeptical. New York Times has been unfavorable from the start; now New York Daily News has led off an editorial on Perot’s complaints of Bush’s criticism with “Listen up and stop whining, Perot.” It went on to quote University of Texas political scientist Walter Dean Burnham as calling Perot “a great big gasbag.” . . . David Broder saw Perot’s call-in TV shows as an end run around a threatening establishment press, including his own Washington Post. “More and more people are beginning to see us as ‘insiders,’ ” he admitted, “preoccupied with the gossip and maneuvers of the politicians we have come to know only too well.” … Paul Tsongas piped up with sage advice: “It’s up to him from now on to see if his peak continues or if he goes into a slow decline.”

In run-up to Democratic Convention, Clinton forces are bound to be cheered by that WP/ABC poll. Their campaign is in deep financial trouble, with debts totalling almost $4 million at last tally. Of that debt, Democratic strategist Michael Berman had said: “This is a three-way race, and while there’s a lot of potential there for Clinton, the average donor doesn’t see it that way.” . . . Clinton’s new life in polls is attributed to favorable response to his economic plan-WP/ABC found that 51 per cent who were familiar with the plan approve of it-and to his attack on Sister Souljah. . . . Political gossip centers on his choice of a running-mate. Clinton, reports Jeffrey H. Birnbaum of the Wall Street Journal, has narrowed choice to four: Sens. Al Gore (Tenn.), Harris Wofford (Pa.), and Robert Kerrey (Neb.), and Rep. Lee Hamilton (Ind.)…. With N.Y. Gov. Mario Cuomo no longer in the running for second spot, recent Supreme Court rulings give strength to Clinton’s hinting that he has other plans for Cuomo, like a seat on Supreme Court: “He is a legal scholar who also understands the impact of the law on real people’s lives.”