What could Bill Clinton have been thinking of? He was making progress toward persuading Congress to approve the North American Free Trade Agreement, and looked likely -- but far from certain -- to win an excruciatingly close House vote next Wednesday. So why risk giving last-minute national TV exposure to Ross Perot, NAFTA's loudest foe? Especially in the form of a debate with Vice President Al Gore, whose wooden performance in a face-off against Dan Quayle last fall contrasted painfully with Perot's barbed wisecracks in his own debates with Clinton and George Bush?
Clinton did have his reasons. He and Gore...