From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

SMOKING OUT THE TRUE NATURE OF A PRESIDENTIAL CONtender is never easy, but with not-yet-declared candidate Ross Perot, the journalistic challenge has been especially tough. The billionaire businessman comes with neither a political track record nor detailed position papers, and two weeks ago, he announced he was cutting back on press appearances, which had grown increasingly heated. Sensitive to criticism when it hits home, Perot made no secret of the fact that he was unhappy with his coverage in TIME -- especially a story in the April 6 issue that said he had displayed a "thirst for publicity."

So when Houston bureau chief Richard Woodbury approached Perot to arrange the in-depth interview that appears in this issue, the first thing Woodbury got was an earful. "Perot is a quirky, prickly guy," says Woodbury. "We defended our reporting, but he wouldn't stop complaining. He really held our hands to the fire." It took a series of extended phone calls, a formal letter and a long phone conversation with managing editor Henry Muller before TIME finally got its foot in the door.

It was worth the effort. The session, conducted in Perot's Dallas offices by Muller, Woodbury and senior writer Walter Shapiro, ended up running for three hours. Shapiro, who has covered every presidential campaign since 1980, describes it as one of the most extraordinary experiences of his career. "For once we had the luxury of waiting out the sound bites, asking the follow-up questions and then getting on to totally fresh stuff. It's a wonderful moment when you realize you've been able to sort out those things he really knows, those things that are smart but that he has not been able to explain well, and those things that still do not make much sense. You can't do that on TV. You can't do it in a one-hop fuselage interview with Bill Clinton. And you certainly can't do it with George Bush."

That kind of access may grow scarce as the campaign warms up. Woodbury, who has covered Perot since 1986, notes that the take-charge Texan still works without handlers, travels without aides and returns his own phone calls. But with his funds unlimited and his polls still zooming, Perot can afford to be eccentric. "As the pressures grow, it will be interesting to see how long the homespun style can endure," says Woodbury. "I'll know it's a new ball game if a media adviser starts returning my calls instead of the man himself."