The Whole Truth and Nothing But?

BUSH

1. Iran-contra. The credibility of Bush's repeated insistence that he was "not in the loop" on the arms-for-hostages deal has been steadily eroded. Documents revealed in early September suggest that despite his claims to the contrary, Bush knew in early 1986 of objections to the sale by Secretary of State George Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger.

2. Abortion. Bush regularly declares, "My position on abortion hasn't changed." Well, not recently, anyway. Bush backed the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision when he ran for President in 1980, but moved to the right as Vice President under Reagan during the 1980s and, in order to curry favor with the G.O.P. conservatives, eventually came to oppose the landmark decision.

3. Clarence Thomas. When he nominated Thomas in July 1991, Bush insisted that he was "the best man" to sit on the Supreme Court. But even the President's aides admit that a jurist of Thomas' modest qualifications would never have been considered for the job unless he was a black conservative.

CLINTON

1. The Draft. Sheer luck combined with a high lottery number was how Clinton used to explain sitting out the Vietnam War. Charitably put, this answer was stunningly incomplete. Only when prodded has Clinton admitted that he schemed to get into an ROTC program at the University of Arkansas, though he never enrolled. And, oops, Clinton also conveniently forgot that he once received a military-induction notice.

2. Marijuana. He always handled the drug-use question by insisting, "I never broke the laws of my country." Only in a debate before the New York primary was Clinton pressed on whether he had ever used drugs abroad. The answer: a confession that he had taken a puff at Oxford, coupled with that now famous -- and widely doubted -- exculpatory phrase "I didn't inhale."

3. The Gulf War. Clinton says that he would have voted for the Senate resolution authorizing the President to go to war, but also that he agreed with the minority position "that we should give sanctions more time and maybe even explore a full-scale embargo." Hawk or dove? Your call.

PEROT

1. Navy Discharge. Perot, an Annapolis graduate, claims that he cut short his Navy hitch because his commanding officer wanted him to bend or break shipboard rules. The officer, now retired, flatly denies this. Another Perot explanation -- that he was shocked to discover that sailors used profane language -- belongs in the "didn't inhale" category.

2. The Self-Made Man. Perot boasted of founding Electronic Data Systems with no other resources than the $1,000 put up by his wife Margot; later he acknowledged that the figure was merely the amount of the Texas registration fee.

3. July Pullout. When Perot withdrew from the race on July 16, he cited the risk that his candidacy might lead to a constitutional crisis by causing an electoral-vote deadlock and throwing the election into the House of Representatives. Since that scenario had been widely discussed for months, Perot's tardy reaction to it suggested two other reasons for his pullout: 1) the realization that he could not win, and 2) his unwillingness to bankroll a full-fledged campaign.