European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 27, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday april 27, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 Edward j. Rollins Perot could Hurt chances for Bush Clinton should we take h. Ross Perot seriously that is the question political insiders Republican and Democrat alike now ask. The answer is yes. Perot a political appetite is sure to have been whetted by a recent Texas poll showing him leading president Bush and Bill Clinton. Just last week he hired a press Secretary and Campaign manager. He resigned memberships in two White Only clubs that would have caused him As much heartburn on the Campaign Trail As Clinton a Golf game in a White Only club last month. He insists negative press reports Are inspired by gop hit squads. These Are the actions of a candidate. True Perot is often compared to John Anderson who ran As an Independent in 1980, and got Only 6.6 percent of the vote a though Spring polls showed him winning 25 percent. But Andersons Appeal was to affluent liberals. Perot a populist phenomenon is closer to Theodore Roosevelt who split from the gop at the turn of the Century under the Bull Moose party Banner. There Are Many reasons Perot should be taken seriously. First his message is powerful in a year when voters Are in an anti incumbent mood a 75 percent think the country is on the wrong track and approval ratings for Congress and the president Are Low. If Perot were following a script it would be from the 1970s hit network where a to Anchorman builds a mass audience by urging viewers to take Back control Over their lives from corrupt institutions. He exhorts his viewers to open their windows and yell Quot in a mad As hell and i wont take it  of course they do. The Perot phenomenon is similar. When Perot appeared on the Phil Donahue show his 800 number was briefly shown. In a single 30-second period 18,000 callers jammed his phone lines. Perot has received More than 2 million Calls from people enlisting in his petition drive. As a Benchmark the 1984 Reagan Bush re election took nearly a year to attract some 700,000 volunteers. The a mad As hello phenomenon should not be dismissed. Inside the two parties it has fuelled Pat Buchanan and Jerry Brown. Now comes a genuine outsider who has sidestepped the two party system and launched the nations first mass Media information age candidacy. Perot a message should alarm both democrats and republicans. The fact is neither party is Strong today. Democratic disarray meant gop gains in the �?T80s, but the gains weren to consolidated. Instead of realignment Many voters simply lost their moorings. Non voters registered independents and ticket split ters together now outnumber either democratic or gop straight ticket voters. The second reason Perot should be taken seriously adds up to $100 million. His declared Campaign War Chest is bigger than Bush a or Clinton a equal almost to both combined. Of course if he chooses he can afford to spend More. Perot does no to need a favourable Media to replay his to sound bites and photo opportunities. If he a smart hell devote most of his Campaign spending to television ads so his message gets across unadulterated. If the two parties freeze him out of debates As happened to Anderson Perot can buy a half hour of network prime time. Such a prime time address in 1964, on behalf of Barry Goldwater launched Ronald Reagan a political career. A third Factor May also Benefit Perot. The Clinton Camp and the Bush re election team Are gearing up to go negative on each other. The conventional winning strategy a to make the other an unappealing Choice in a year when voters want change a May simply turn Many voters off and boost Perot a Appeal. The question of Perot a Impact remains. Perot is unlikely to win. Yet he might carry enough states to deny either Bush or Clinton the 270 electoral College majority. That Means the House of representatives would decide the election. The Winner would take office weakened and unusually Beholden to Congress. Campaign strategists for Bush and Clinton May Hope intense Media scrutiny will sour the Public on Perot. Done to bet on it. The Media Isnit High on the credibility list with populists. Media attacks will make his supporters _ work harder. Perot can minimize damage by advertising Early to create a positive image before negative news accounts do damage. The Only sure antidote is for the parties to prove their relevance. There a no better Way to Cut into Perot a support than to give voters a reason to come Back to the main parties and their candidates. Rollina Whit Houm political director from 1981-85, Arvad a president Reagan a Campaign manager in 1984. C Unildo prose International Andrew Ratner the decision is tougher than Hillary realizes Hillary Clinton a comment that she could have a stayed Home and baked cookies Drew More attention than she could have dreamed. But Clinton Wasny to the first political wife of late to uncork High pressure emotions on the subject of women and careers. After her husband was elected president Barbara Bush caused a stir by contending that the proliferation of dual income families and children raised in Day care was the result of parents choosing material goods Over their children a welfare. Naturally Man people particularly working women were incensed. The respondents said they work because they must work or want to work the wife of a former ambassador and vice president they added could have no concept of their stresses. This subject a the decision of women to continue Woi King or suspend careers to raise children a is so personal and Laden with emotion that it can barely be discussed with Calm and Candor in Public. It has been suggested that women at work and women at Home should become allies not enemies in the continuing Battle for women a rights. But if the recent political controversies Are an indication there is no Middle ground in this debate. It is in family circles the largely unspoken civil War of the 1990s Only in this philosophical Battle men stand on the sidelines. With the workplace still inclined to pay men More there Are so few dads at Home raising children that they Are but a statistical Blip in Only 4 percent of couples does the wife work and the husband not according to . Census figures from 1987. The predicament of work is. Children rests almost solely with women. I am married to a woman who made the decision to stay Home to raise our children. I Admire her for making that Choice. How difficult it is Hillary Clinton could not imagine. A support system for mothers a stable communities strollers lined up at a playground like jets at a Busy Airport Coffee Over the Back Yard Fence the world in which she and i were raised a might As Well be a dogeared chapter in a history Book following the homesteaders and Ellis Island immigrants. Her Choice i feel is undervalued by Many in our generation and even by Many older women possibly because today a options weren to available to them. I think the Choice of some women to raise their children at Home is misunderstood because it is so rare. Couples with both partners working outside the Home jumped by 16 percent from 1981 to 1987, while households with men at work and women at Home dropped that much according to the census Bureau. Families with two incomes Are almost twice As prevalent As one income families and the imbalance gets even steeper among College educated baby Boom women Only one in five of them does not work outside the Home according to american demographics Magazine. Is our Choice the better Road for us it is. My wife said she did no to want to squeeze our children onto a list of things to get done after 5 . And on the weekends. Will her daily presence ensure Success for our children no. Will it make them tops in school so Many variables will shape them who knows did we want to hand them Over to a virtual stranger for eight to 10 hours a Day no. Did we want to live in constant dread that a Day care provider would up and quit some Day forcing us to accept whatever Short no Tice alternative became available no. Could we rely on a Quality time a another gain no pain investment from the �?T80s the parenting equivalent of a junk Bonds a no. Is it fair that i get to play both father and writer no. Is it fair that my wife a also trained and skilled As a writer who knew she wanted to be one before i did a May have to Start a few Steps Back when she re sums her suspended career no. But it is also wrong that a Hillary Clinton could somehow think less of the courageous Choice women such As my wife have made or that my wife a explanation of what she does elicits pregnant pauses from working people who figure intellectual conversation is reserved for those who pick up a pay stub on fridays. If it is not a lifestyle right for the Hillary Clinton Fine. They Are better off exercising the career opportunities they be won for themselves in the �?T90s. Some will contend this is so much hand wringing a whining straight off the set of televisions thirty Someth ing. To the contrary i would suggest if the Choice were As simple As Hillary Clinton described a career is. Cookie making a there would be no dilemma at All. C the Baltimore son the Opl Nione expire need in the coir one end cartoon on thle Page represent Noaa of the author and Are in no Way to be Eona tiered a representing the View of the Star and Stripe or the United state government