Perot is up on the White House radar screen these days for a simple reason: some fairly startling new survey numbers. The latest are in the NEWSWEEK Poll. If the last election were rerun now, the poll shows, Perot would fare noticeably better-while both Clinton and George Bush would do worse. In another new survey, conducted by a bipartisan team of Washington polltakers, 46 percent of those interviewed said they would “consider” voting for Perot again. That’s up from 24 percent five months ago. “Perot has become one of the strongest political forces in the country,” says Republican polltaker Ed Goeas.

As President Clinton jousts with Bob Dole and faces agonizing decisions about Bosnia taxes and health care, Perot is successfully positioning himself as the Opposition of One, In harsh language, he denounces Clinton and elbows Republicans out of the limelight. Inside the Beltway Dole wins praise, or at least ink, for his sardonic intransigence. But Clinton and his aides know that in the rest of the country Republicans are not the only threat. “They won’t say it publicly, but they are obsessed with Perot and his supporters,” says one top Democratic polltaker. “It’s almost at the level of the bizarre. Every other sentence is: how do we get his people?”

Perot has sharpened his spiel into a disingenuously simple message: whack spending, balance the books, bust the grip of both parties. He now lumps Clinton with Bush as a promise-breaking dissembler and accuses the administration of “flying blind without instruments.” Recent events strengthen Perot’s claim that only a genuine “outsider” can remake Washington. Campaign-finance reform-a top Perot issue–won’t be sweeping once congressional insiders finish “improving” it. White House attacks on Dole could yield more congressional gridlock, not less. The GOP’s naysaying stance leaves the field open for a vision of salvation. “There’s a void out there, and Perot fills it,” says Goeas.

As usual, Clintonians are of several minds about how to react. One theory is to ignore Perot. He merely divides the opposition, in this view. “He’s not hurting us much, but he’s absolutely killing Republicans” by siphoning off GOP support, says Clinton guru James Carville. In addition Carville contends, the president’s main task is to achieve new legislative successes–good notices for his healthcare package or final passage of his economic plan-that will convince voters Clinton is the agent of “real change.”

But it’s now clear that success in Congress depends in part on convincing skittish members that Perot is no colossus. So another, quite different approach is gaining favor: to force a closer examination of Perot’s own rhetoric. In 1992 the Texan claimed the high ground on the deficit by proposing a mix of taxes and spending cuts–some of which Clinton mimicked. Now Perot is after the easy score, touting term limits and a balanced-budget amendment and criticizing the notion of tax sacrifice he once championed. “It’s about time that the media take a closer look at what he’s saying,” complained one top White House aide.

So far, Clinton himself mostly has held his fire. That may not last. NEWSWEEK’s Poll shows that voters don’t think Perot’s motives are pure: only a third say his criticism of Clinton is “generally constructive.” Most say his attacks are “just politics.” In the end, Clinton may have to take on the task of proving that his leading critic is no saint–or at least that he’s just another politician.

If the elections were rerun today, whom would you vote for?

CURRENT ‘92 VOTE Clinton 38% 43% Bush 31% 38% Perot 26% 19%

Is Ross Perot’s criticism of President Clinton:

35% Generally constructive 49% Just politics

For this NEWSWEEK Poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed a national sample of 750 adults by telephone April 29-30. The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points. Some “Don’t know” and other responses not shown. The NEWSWEEK Poll copyright 1993 by NEWSWEEK Inc.