Perot Launches TV Blitz Says Exclusion From Debate Kept Issues From Being Aired

For a presidential candidate left out of the debate, Reform Party nominee Ross Perot made the most of it Sunday.

He managed to appear on network television before and after the 90-minute debate between President Clinton and Republican nominee Bob Dole, all the while complaining about his exclusion from the main event and telling his much smaller audience what the rest of the nation missed by his absence.

Perot appeared on a 30-minute infomercial on the ABC network at 4 p.m. PDT and on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in the morning, and was on a special 45-minute edition of CNN’s “Larry King Live” after the debate.

“It was interesting to listen to,” Perot said of the debates on “Larry King Live.”

“My concern is that they never went to the core problems. The core problem is that we have two parties that control our government.”

The mini-blitz on television is part of Perot’s revised campaign strategy, forced on him when the Commission on Presidential Debates - since backed by federal court rulings - barred him from participating with the two major-party candidates. His independent run for president four years ago also was centered on TV.

“They’ve done everything they can to freeze us out,” Perot said on “Face the Nation.” Perot predicted that “Senator Dole will probably be missing me a lot. He would wish that there was a third person there because it’s just one-on-one tonight, and that will be a tough game.”

But Perot said he has no intention of dropping out.

“We will be in this race to the end because I want the American people to vote their conscience,” he said.

Perot said Clinton and Dole “should be nailed on the issues that won’t even come up. And that is, No. 1: What are we going to do about this financial mess we have our country in?”

Neither party “takes any responsibility … but nobody else was there,” Perot said.

On his new infomercial, Perot ticked off a number of issues he said Clinton and Dole are ignoring. Among them are campaign reform, eliminating the electoral college, lobbying reform, term limits, banning exit polls, a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and reforming the tax code.