Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100062
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Powell would have made an intriguing candidate - and possibly a fine president.
Granted, he had become a dreamy vessel for things many Americans find lacking in politics and the current presidential field. He seemed to answer inchoate yearnings for a non-politician on horseback, invested with moral authority to ride into Washington and restore the dignity of national leadership and the unity of the body politic. It is hard to imagine a mortal bearing up under that symbolic weight.
Still, during the extraordinary couple of months of his book tour/coy courtship with the country, Powell came across as a grown-up with a civil voice in uncivil times, an unafraid moderate. As a black candidate or president, moreover, he might have helped America address its widening racial and social divides.
In his autobiography, Powell wrote: "My life is a story of hard work and good luck, of service and soldiering. Above all, it's a love story: love of family, of friends, of the Army, and of my country. It is a story that could only have happened in America." Candidate Powell might have helped reacquaint some of the disaffected with the American dream he well embodies.
He surely would have had a good effect on his Republican Party. Secure enough in himself to show political humility, restraint, decency and tolerance, he could have helped broaden the party's appeal. He would have loosened, for one thing, Democrats' six-decade grip on black voters, a relationship that sometimes takes blacks for granted.
More important, he would have loosened the far right's grip on the GOP. Most Americans, if not bullies and zealots taking over the party, agree with Powell's views about affirmative action, school prayer, abortion and gun control - agree, too, with the manner in which he seemed to arrive at his views: trying to be reasonable, taking into consideration effects on people. As he put it, the political spectrum's "sensible center" needs to reassert itself.
In a panic over his potential candidacy, the far right already had begun throwing muck at Powell - attempting to smear his career and integrity, even his wife. Wednesday's announcement gave ultras cause to join the celebrations of the obsequious presidential aspirants who paled by comparison with Powell.
Now, with nothing to break GOP candidates' ties to the demanding right, Clinton's centrism may look better to the electorate. Yet his leadership continues to be crippled by bizarre vacillation and perpetual identity crisis.
The entire stage has lost luster with the exit of Prince Charming. If he won't single-handedly save America from itself - an impossible task anyway - we'll have to return to the difficult work of saving ourselves.
by CNB