Candidates in Conflict: Persuasive Attack and Defense in the 1992 Presidential Debates

MODERATOR: The first topic tonight is what separates each of you from the other. Mr. Perot, what do you believe tonight is the single most important separating issue of this campaign?

PEROT: I think the principal issue that separates me is that five and a half million people came together on their own and put me on the ballot. I was not put on the ballot by either of the two parties. I was not put on the ballot by any PAC money, by any foreign lobbyist money, by any special interest money. This is a movement that came from the people. This is the way the framers of the Constitution intended our government to be, a government that comes from the people.

Over time we have developed a government that comes at the people, that comes from the top down, where the people are more or less treated as objects to be programmed during the campaign with commercials and media events and fear messages and personal attacks and things of that nature. The thing that separates my candidacy and makes it unique is that this came from millions of people in fifty states all over this country who wanted a candidate that worked and belonged to nobody but them. I go into this race as their servant. And I belong to them. So this comes from the people.

MODERATOR: Governor Clinton, one-minute response.

CLINTON: The most important distinction in this campaign is that I represent real hope for change, a departure from trickle-down economics, a departure from tax-and-spend economics to invest in

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