Ross Perot

WASHINGTON -- In a long-shot gamble to try to boost his flagging campaign, Bob Dole appealed to Ross Perot yesterday to drop out of the presidential race and throw his support behind the Republican nominee, according to an informed source and national news reports.Trailing by double digits in the polls less than two weeks before Election Day, Dole dispatched his campaign manager, Scott Reed, to Dallas to speak with the Texas billionaire and to ask for his endorsement on behalf of Dole.Neither Dole nor Perot had any comment yesterday on the meeting.

THIS SUMMER, WHILE drinking a frozen drink on the island of Lanai, in Hawaii, I came up with a plan for saving the democratic process, if anybody still wants to. The democratic process was on my mind because I attended both the Republican and Democratic conventions (motto of both parties: "Building a Better America by Mindlessly Waving Signs"). I also watched on television as the Ross Perot Party, founded and paid for by Ross Perot, made the surprising decision to nominate Ross Perot.This means I spent 10 solid days watching men in suits explain why they want us to elect them president.

WASHINGTON -- Once upon a time, polls were conducted to learn what people think. Now, political scientists wonder whether polls are telling people what to think.Has a simple tool of commerce intended to help match products with markets evolved into a force of its own in this society obsessed with focus groups and numbers? When a candidate such as Bob Dole trails so far behind in public opinion surveys that his cause is declared by the press to be all but lost two months before an election, does that become a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Go ahead and say it: Pat who?Easy to snicker at Ross Perot's choice to be his running mate: Bearded, burly Pat Choate, a Mr. Anonymous unknown beyond Beltway think tanks or his Maypearl, Texas, hometown.OK, so Choate's no political slamdunk that will cause terror in the Dole and Clinton camps. Or jar Perot's ratings out of single digits.It'll take more than the half-million bucks Perot spent on Tuesday night's CBS infomercial to make Pat Choate a household name. Maybe Ross should invest in a zillion bumper stickers: "CHOATE AS IN VOTE."

Special coddling for white collar criminalsIt seems former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker is another in a long line of white-collar criminals who suddenly develop a deathly illness when faced with a probable prison sentence.With this type of coddling by our judges, it is no surprise many people have no respect for government and scoff at the criminal justice system.Perhaps if most average criminals received this treatment, there would be minimal prison overcrowding.Donald HollandBaltimoreA sad centenary at ArlingtonOn the 100th birthday of my late Dad, who worked for The Sun from 1929 to 1969, I went over to Arlington National Cemetery Columbarium to make a ''rubbing'' of his tombstone.

The novelty has long since worn off Ross Perot, but Dole's adoption of the supply-side heresy gives him a new reason for being.The candidates outdo each other promising economic growth while the Fed of their choice does what it can to prevent any such thing.Bill is 50 and the time is swift coming when he won't have to dye his hair gray.Kemp is Dole's Dole.Pub Date: 8/21/96

THERE ARE NO second acts for third parties in America, but that may be about to change. This time a third party is going to be greatly subsidized by the federal government. Because Ross Perot got 19 percent of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential contest, he, as nominee of the movement now called the Reform Party, is entitled to $29.2 million from the Treasury. That is only half as much as the Democratic and Republican nominees will receive -- but it is hardly chicken feed.If it is enough to get and keep a Perot candidacy up in the polls, he should be guaranteed a place in the Clinton-Dole debates.

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- At the outset of former Gov. Dick Lamm's speech before the new Reform Party convention here, he thanked party founder Ross Perot for making the day possible, observing that "I wouldn't be here without Ross Perot."That certainly was true. The convention that marked the first of two steps in putting a third presidential candidate into the 1996 presidential election was Mr. Perot's baby, conceived and implemented in his head and with his money. Dick Lamm merely picked up on Mr. Perot's invitation to run amid the Texas billionaire's continued statements that he didn't want to run himself.

WILL ROSS PEROT's new Reform Party outlast the billionaire candidate whose money was its midwife? Will the party do well enough to qualify for federal election funds in 1998 and 2000? Is a genuine third party really on the scene, ready to shake-up political arithmetic or supplant one of the existing major parties?Such questions resonate after the Reform Party's two-part convention captured some prime time from the Republicans this past weekend and will do so again when it confirms Mr. Perot's nomination next weekend.

WASHINGTON -- Although much of the sizzle surrounding Ross Perot has died down since his independent bid for the presidency four years ago, the maverick Texas billionaire has thrust himself into the presidential picture once again, rattling Republicans and even some within his fledgling third party.Appearing to firm up his resolve to accept the nomination of the Reform Party if it is offered, Perot said yesterday he would run because "the American people want me to do this.""I will do it," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America," "and I'm in a unique position to do it."