And in a remarkable story in The New York Times, reporter Dean Baquet traced how Perot and his son managed to override the judgment of the Federal Aviation Administration and get the federal government to subsidize the building of a high-technology airport on Perot land.

The result: a multiplication of the value of the Perot land. And it was all made possible by a little ride in Perot's private helicopter with then-Speaker of the House Jim Wright, since ousted for ethical violations.

In short, Ross Perot is no outsider. In fact, he's the consummate insider--a guy with the connections, money and savvy to play the game. Indeed, he has often won at the political game, but if you believe his pitch, he has never even been a player.

The message of the Perot story is simple: If you work hard and make a lot of money (or if you stumble upon a lot of money somehow), you too can have the access and political influence you always wanted. If Ross Perot is running against the system and those that corrupt it, then he's running against people like himself.

BUT PEROT SEEMS to have an answer to the money=influence problem which he took advantage of during his career: Appeal to the people. Bypass the lobbyists and special interests. All laudable goals.

But along the way, Perot wants to forget about representative democracy as well. Simplify things. Make it direct. Have national electronic "town meetings," with H. Ross himself as chair of the national town council.

Perot-style town meetings, however, would be no more than a sham. They would be no more than a regurgitation of Perotisms--he'd make sure of that. Why? Perot hasn't really learned to be interested in what the people want--few businesspeople are. The nature of running a business is just fundamentally different from the work of a politician--you care about what makes the most profits and not what's best for the people. And even as corporate executives go, Perot was known to have a particularly autocratic style.

The Perot approach--at least as he tells it--works like this: Identify a problem, find a solution, implement the solution. No nonsense. After all, consensus is for "sissies." And when you're a multibillionaire, you get the feeling you know what you're doing. Ross has his ideas, and he is not running for president to listen to the ideas of others.

Voters like Ross Perot because he's a doer--and as a slick political operator and autocrat, he would no doubt "get things done" as president. But what "things"? If we are going to grant this guy so much power, we should get some idea of what he would do with it.

For example, Perot says he intends to cut the deficit. Like many candidates, he says he'll go after "waste." But to really make a dent in the deficit, he'll actually have to go after programs. What programs would he cut?

Representative democracy is too messy for Perot--and so are the checks that go with it. If we become disillusioned with President Perot, where will we turn? To a cowed Congress? To another White Knight?

So if you're sick of democracy and want a guy who can sell his personal series of fix-it plans to the country, fine. If you want a guy who doesn't mind trampling on the Constitution to achieve his ends, then go ahead and pull the trigger. And if you want a guy whose accomplishments through government illustrate everything--particularly the marriage of money and power--that's wrong with American politics, then Perot's your man.

Just get ready to put your hand over your heart and give a firm salute to the television. The maestro of political manipulation wants our vote. Let's make sure we know what we're voting for.