European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 31, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday october 31, 1992 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13perot spoiler act could throw election to Bush it would be the ultimate irony if the candidate who came into the presidential race clamouring for change let his own ego tripping Rob the electorate of its vote for change. The final Days of the Campaign find Ross Perot rising in the polls at Bill Clinton a expense. Clinton probably will still win this thing but Perot is making it harder for him and it is just possible he could steal enough votes from the real election a the one Between Clinton and George Bush a to re elect a president whose policies Perot himself says have been a disaster. And All of this mind you not to win a because that is out of the question a but just so popinjays Perot can preen before a National audience. Perot a Campaign in these final Days has become not More cogent but Ever weirder. From the Start Perot has seen spies lurking in every Shadow heard plots hatching in every office. Now he has out weirder even himself. Perot said in july he was quitting out of la de a High mindedness so As not to throw the election into the House of representatives. Now he says he copped out to keep Bush operatives from smearing his daughter with faked photographs and disrupting her wedding. Perot offers no evidence and the charges offend every instinct of common sense. There a nothing for Bush to gain by discrediting and carrying Perot a daughter but Perot harkens to every paranoid theory that is hustled to him. Perot May be a Tough minded businessman but he a a Mush headed fool for tales of conspiracy. The Perot Campaign itself has been one Long scam a Shell game that has had gape mouthed rubes plunking their vote Down twice Over for the candidate to pocket. The groundswell and petition drives for Perot were in fact staffed and bankrolled by the Perot billions. His comeback from self exile was a transparent contrivance. Perot has limited his Campaign mainly to softball to talk shows like Larry Kings and to 30-minute infomercials in which he either booms a Rosy version of his life or feasts on marshmallows tossed to him by a paid Toady. Tom Teepen the Dodge is deeply scornful of the very Public that Perot likes to claim As both the source and the client of his candidacy. Even Perot a one supposedly solid contribution to the Campaign is a Sham. He neither made the Federal deficit an Issue As often claimed nor has he contributed to any Likely solution. After a decade of record deficits with the latest at about $300 billion there was no Way the budget  be an Issue. And Perot a solution is sound Only if you think the deficit Isnit just an important Issue but the Only one. It would Force a major recession on us. Bush and Clinton sensibly offer More measured plans. The electorate has rejected George Bush. He is not rising in the polls. His Only Hope is that his relentless personal attack on Clinton and Perot a stunt will Comine to so diminish the Clinton vote that they leave Bush with a plurality president again by default. Ross Perot who claimed he wanted to rewrite the Book on politics might a just might a turn out to be the author of a George Bush a the  c Cox news service libertarians offer platform for True protester suppose you re fed up with Bush and done to quite Trust Clinton. You want to Register a protest because you refuse to identify with the Prissy anti politician who once said a i never vote it Only encourages  that leaves Perot right wrong. He is not a suitable vehicle for protest because he is a multimillionaire on an ego trip. He purchases his ideas in a Book written for him denounces sound bites in sound bites slyly adopts a the issues As his Issue and takes a two month vacation from campaigning to avoid hard scrutiny. A where then does a protester go to protest is there a candidate on the ballot in All 50 states who does not pretend to have a Chance of winning whose Campaign is not financed by the taxpayers or out of millions milked out of medicaid and whose platform is different from the Trio that refused to let him join the televised debates his name is Andre Marrou 56, a real estate broker born in Texas. His running mate is Nancy lord 40, a physician from Maryland. They Are the candidates of the libertarian party and they deserve More of a look see than the Media have been giving them. Libertarians want to get most government out of the lives of individuals. Police and fire departments Are Fine they say As is a tiny bit of National defense but get the government out of All other activities that private Enterprise and organized Charity can do More efficiently. No More subsidies. This includes gulp schooling welfare health retirement All those things we have come to take As entitlements. A Little extreme you ainu to heard nothing yet decriminalize drugs and prostitution forget gun control or abortion limitation eliminate Federal agencies Settle environmental clashes in court permit open immigration. By taking this course say the libertarians with a capital a we could do away with the irs. None of that Ziminy Ziminy tax reduction on the Middle class that Clinton and Bush Are half promising the Marrou lord ticket would wipe out the income tax altogether a in stages. Until voluntary financing of Small government becomes a reality. That a silly you say. I agree if taken literally the libertarian platform is so far out of the mainstream As to be High and dry. Lefties and eighties alike harrumph and say a now that a going too  although most libertarians will never admit it their platform is meant to be taken figuratively not literally part of their Charm is their ability to keep a straight face As they espouse this outrageous philosophy. That a because they Are talking in poetry not prose. They see republicans Drifting rightward on civil liberties a toward greater bureaucratic intrusion and less personal Freedom a and the libertarians want to dramatize their difference. William Safire they see democrats Drifting leftward on statism a toward government intervention in free markets Industrial policy welf arism a and libertarians want to catch your attention with draconian proposals to Stop it. Marrou Points out accurately that he is the Only right handed Man running for the presidency in All 50 states for whatever that a Worth. Or. Lord is the Only woman on the ballot in All 50 states. They do not hint As does the half protest candidate Perot that they entertain a Hope of some miraculous Victory or of throwing the election into the use or of getting a Job with the Winner. The libertarian function As i see it is to present an Opportunity for protest in its pure form by leaning against statist or moralizing tendencies in both parties. Principled people troubled by those tendencies or distrustful of the major party candidates Are offered a Way to signify their dissatisfaction without dropping out or aligning themselves with an eccentric dilettante. In a tempted to go this route but for a pundit who makes his living throwing political choices around like thunderbolts it would be a cop out. For undecideds now parking with Perot however who find themselves unhappy about letting vast personal wealth determine a National protest candidacy consider the alternative Marrou and lord the libertarian party respectable in its invincible Unwin ability. C 7he new Yori it time