Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.issues,americast.usa-today.issues From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: issues Fri, Oct 2 1992 Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 04:56:03 EDT Message-ID: 10-02 0000 DECISIONLINE: Issues & Debate USA TODAY Update Oct. 2-4, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Here are some of the issues and topics being debated across the nation Friday morning in USA TODAY: Perot, Gag rule, Columbus. TODAY'S DEBATE - ROSS PEROT: USA TODAY'S OPINION: So Ross Perot wants to be considered a serious presidential contender again? Hey, it's a free country. Why not? The Texas billionaire - or anyone who meets constitutional requirements and gets the needed petition signatures - should be counted as a candidate. The risk is that Perot's seductive rhetoric will entice some understandably frustrated voters into wasting their ballots in one of the more pivotal elections since World War II. ... The Texan now will find victory almost impossible. Just 7% of voters support him, shows a CNN:USA TODAY:Gallup poll released Thursday; 52% backed Bill Clinton; 35%, President Bush. More tellingly, two in three thought unfavorably of Perot - almost double the negative rating he attracted in July, when he left active campaigning. Bush or Clinton almost certainly will be the next president. And on each issue Perot emphasized in announcing Thursday, they offer the nation a clear choice. Gridlock? Voters could put Republicans or Democrats in charge of both White House and Congress. Perot just adds a third, mostly unknown variable. Shrinking the $4 trillion deficit, Perot's main theme? Crucial, certainly - and he's right that Bush and Clinton haven't given voters enough hard talk about it. ... But they do have distinct plans about how they'd restart the economy. Perot has provided few specifics - and even less acknowledgment of other pressing concerns, such as trade and tax policies, changing defense needs and relations with other nations. Voters also ought to be wary of Perot's attempts Thursday to confine debate to a handful of issues. Above all, they should be wary of confusing added choices with effective ones. OTHER VIEW: WILLIAM I. FINE, a Minneapolis businessman: A vote for Ross Perot is a vote for the next president of the United States - and I don't mean the 1996 election. ... Ross Perot let George Bush and Bill Clinton cut each other up for nine weeks, wrote a clear, concise platform which addresses the important issues, and didn't peak too early. ... Conventional wisdom has it that we have two political parties. ... In reality, the Democrats and Republicans are two branches of one "Entrenched" Party. And if you think the life of the Entrenched Party is interminable, consider what happened to the former Communist Party of the former Soviet Union. ... The only constant in 1992 has been the extreme yearning for change. Only Ross Perot can dislodge the Entrenched Party and fulfill this yearning. ... In Minnesota two years ago, Gov. Arne Carlson, in a four-person primary election, polled 16% of the total vote. Nine days before the general election, the GOP primary winner resigned; Carlson was designated to replace him and only then began actively campaigning. ... with little more than a week in which to campaign, he unseated an incumbent governor - and less than two months after he came in last out of four primary candidates? One more thing: There are important similarities between Ross Perot and George Washington. Washington, like Perot, was free from shackles on his left ankle and his right ankle. Washington stood "aloof from party divisions and emphasized his position as president of the whole country." Washington was unanimously acclaimed by the electors to be the first president of this great melting pot. Don't underestimate Perot. VOICES ACROSS THE NATION ON FUNDED CLINICS GIVING ABORTION ADVICE: CHARLOTTE, Mich., Tom Haynie, 43, minister: Yes. Clinic workers have every right to give their opinions, like any doctor. A lot of workers' counsel is wiser than the counsel doctors will give. Doctors are no more expert when it comes to the rightness or wrongness of abortion than the rest of us. BALTIMORE, Md., Tracey Williams, 24, graduate student: Yes. The woman should know all the options she has, whether it be abortion or carrying the baby to term. If you have money, you can go to your private doctor, who can explain all your options. Women shouldn't be denied information just because they're lower income. GUADALUPE, Ariz., Patricia Martinez, 31, health promoter: I'm against abortion, so I think women should hear about the consequences they are going to go through from a doctor. A doctor would be able to explain what they are going to go through and how they are going to be messing up their lives. W. MELBOURNE, Fla., Anna Arsenault, 67, retired volunteer: Workers should be able to give women all their options. The clinics are important for low-income people. My son adopted a child because a woman had to give up the baby, but that's a tragic thing. She shouldn't have to do that if she doesn't want to. LAFAYETTE, La., Fred Reggie, 43, financial adviser: Counseling should be limited to doctors. Only they have an expertise in abortion procedure and the physical consequences. However, if one of the workers has an expertise in counseling women, I would have no problem with a worker giving advice along those lines. TOPIC - CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: Al Neuharth is the founder of USA TODAY. 500 years ago next week, the "Old World" and "New World" met. Christopher Columbus, sailing from Spain, touched North American land Oct. 12, 1492. Took him two months and nine days to make the trip. This week, I did it in under nine hours. That dramatic difference in travel time has linked the old and new worlds. But instant and constant communication - via satellite, through the media - is the glue that will bring the whole Global Village together. And determine its leaders. For most of the last half century, the world has looked west. At the USA. Mostly in envy and admiration. Now, many here think that focus will shift back to Europe by the turn of the century. Business and political leaders proudly tell you this historic country is flourishing. Some guardedly suggest the USA may be floundering. Felipe Gonzalez Marquez, Spain's prime minister and president, put it to me this way when I last visited with him: "We are like an old tree with deep roots, but with new branches flowering very strongly." This week, Gonzalez, King Juan Carlos and others pointed out to members of the Inter-American Press Association at their 50th anniversary gathering here some of Spain's 1992 fruits of that flowering: The Olympics at Barcelona, successful and scandal-free. Seville's Expo '92, a World Trade Fair far ahead of its anticipated attendance. Spain is determined to play a key role in the emerging European Community. ... Spain of 1992 has a fix on the future. With some of the same vision that Columbus had in 1492. Preserving the best, the deep old roots. Improving the rest, the flowering new branches. Not a bad credo for the country which Columbus found to follow. Issues & Debate Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM