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-- Displeased with the widely praised Vietnam Memorial in Washington, Perot, who helped finance the design competition, asked for an audit of the books of the committee raising money to build it. No impropriety was ever found. The controversy illustrates that Perot's munificent charitable gifts are often given with strings attached, and there are instances of his pulling on the strings to withdraw the gifts.
-- Angered because a tenant of a house he owned in Dallas had missed a monthly rent payment, Perot filed a suit citing that and "certain unsavory actions" (never specified). He won a judge's authorization for guards to search the house three times a day; they apparently found nothing much. A former cop who participated in the searches says no one without Perot's money and clout could ever have got away with that. Trivial as the incident might seem to those not involved, it revives shivery memories of how Richard Nixon, a friend of Perot's, used the vastly greater power of the White House to harass the people on his enemies list.
A fuller, more complicated picture of Ross Perot has begun to emerge. To date there is no single misdeed, no terrible indiscretion or any personal quirk that could be considered disqualifying. Rather, as is often the case, Perot's strengths are mirror images of his weaknesses. Is he a decisive, can- do, fiercely driven man who would help solve the nation's problems? Or is he an overly ambitious, thin-skinned tyrant who would only make things worse? * Beyond what he really is, there is also the question of how in the end he is seen by the electorate. Is public frustration running so high that faults crippling to a more conventional candidate will be overlooked? Whatever the answers to these questions, one thing is very clear: Perot will not have an easy time getting to the White House. George Bush and Bill Clinton will see to that. The American people are not likely to give the presidency to someone unless they know him -- or at least think they know him -- almost intimately. The U.S. political system is bizarre in many respects, but it does test the temperament and tenacity of the candidates. In the end it is likely that the Ross Perot of November will look a good deal different from the Ross Perot of June.