Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 17, 1995                   TAG: 9509160001
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CLARENCE LUSANE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A POWELL RACE WOULD BE ABOUT RACE

Powell's supporters, however, are naive about the gruesome racial politics that dominate the nation's political landscape. The gap between blacks and whites on everything from the Simpson trial to party politics is widening by the hour as opportunistic politicians and sensationalistic media light the fuse on America's racial powder keg.

With Pat Buchanan and Pete Wilson playing with fire on issues like affirmative action, immigration, crime and welfare, a run by Colin Powell would challenge white Americans to come to grips with their racism.

There is little doubt that Powell will receive strong support from black America. His well-known battles against racism in the military, his rise to the highest military post available and his embrace by the thousands of black families with military ties are high positives to many African Americans. As an independent, Powell could pull a large segment of the black vote, pretty much guaranteeing that Clinton will be spending 1997 working on his memoirs.

In most polls, Powell wins 20-25 percent in a three-way contest with Clinton and Dole, and wins a plurality of independent voters. A recent Times-Mirror poll placed Clinton, Dole, Gingrich and Perot with approval ratings in the 40 percent range and below. Powell's is floating around 62 percent.

Powell's stellar military career endears him to conservatives and to many African Americans. In the wars against Grenada, Panama and Iraq, Powell managed to be at the center of these conflicts, while remaining on the periphery of the scandals surrounding them.

Powell has stated that he is conservative on economic and defense issues but moderate and liberal on social and cultural issues. This is a posture that is indistinguishable from moderate Republicans, or for that matter moderate Democrats. Conservatism and moderation will have little meaning until Powell takes more positions on issues.

But if Powell runs, either as an independent or as a Republican, the one issue he'll have to confront above all is race. In the end, his views may hardly matter, for he will have to face white voters who continue to show a reluctance to vote for black candidates, except under extraordinary and unusual circumstances.

Powell is no political angel. He opposed integrating gays and lesbians into the military. And his war record cuts both ways. There are many who felt that the war adventures of presidents Reagan and Bush were unnecessary, and Powell is intimately linked to those forays.

But it's not his record that will stop him. It's his race. There should be no illusions. Powell's chances of becoming the next president are next to nil. Still, if he runs a campaign that addresses the needs of working people and others suffering under the current political arrangements, he may receive a respectable showing.

Clarence Lusane is author of ``African Americans at the Crossroads: The Restructuring of Black Leadership and the 1992 Elections.''

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune