1992Year Ross Perot, who presents himself as a patriot and defender of servicemen missing in action, turns out to be a man who used his father's political influence to try to get out of fulfilling his commitment to the U.S. Navy. Mr. Perot has changed his story twice about his reason for seeking a "hardship" discharge in 1955. That straining to reshape his past makes his use of political pull to get out of his service obligation into a character issue today. Essay

1992Year For Gov. Bill Clinton, these days have been deeply frustrating. He had planned to use the coasting period between the time that his nomination became inevitable and the Democratic National Convention in New York to hone his message and raise his national profile for the fall election campaign. But he and his strategists have been blind sided by evidence of Ross Perot's popularity. And if their panic has been less visible than that in the White House, they seem just as baffled. THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Political Memo

1992Year Ross Perot said he was going to be an unconventional candidate. But so far, his rehabilitated bid for the Presidency has been more like a stealth campaign. After keeping the nation on tenterhooks for more than a week about his intentions and then restarting his abandoned Presidential campaign on Thursday with much ballyhoo, the unpredictable Texas businessman has virtually dropped out of sight. THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The Independent

1992Year Officials of Gov. Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign in New York and Connecticut are largely discounting the impact of Ross Perot's return to the race. But in New Jersey, Mr. Perot's return offers at least an opportunity for President Bush's flagging campaign to salvage the state and its 15 electoral votes, political analysts say. New Jersey, which has voted Republican in recent Presidential races, is considered a must-win for Mr. Bush. But before Mr. Perot's re-entry, Mr. Clinton was running slightly ahead in public opinion polls. The thin margin raises at least the possibility, say politicians and pollsters, that Mr. Perot could lure away enough Clinton supporters to let Mr. Bush squeak through. THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: The New York Region

1994Year Once again, Ross Perot proudly declared today that his organization, United We Stand America, was redefining from the grass roots how Government should work. "You've heard me say a hundred times," the Texas billionaire said, "I'm incidental to this organization." But the group's state leaders spent the weekend here behind closed doors, struggling about how to define themselves and whether that means moving away from Mr. Perot's shadow. Political Memo

1992Year With the candidate out of sight, the voice of the Ross Perot campaign speaks these days not with a Texarkana twang but with the droopy drawl of southwest Georgia. It belongs to Orson G. Swindle 3d, who seems to share Mr. Perot's penchant for both patriotic fervor and backwoods philosophy. Ten weeks ago, Mr. Swindle was minding his own business, running an association of preschools in Honolulu, where he had recently moved. Now, as executive director of United We Stand, America, Mr. Perot's political organization, he spends his days jousting with the likes of Ted Koppel on "Nightline" and John H. Sununu on "Crossfire," when, of course, he is not appearing on "Good Morning America" or the "MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour." THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Campaign Profile