THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 3, 1995 TAG: 9508310040
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The name of Gen. Colin Powell keeps charging to the top of presidential-preference polls. But the yearning for someone to ride to the country's rescue that produced Perot and keeps the Powell illusion alive says more about the national mood than about their qualifications for the office.
Powell appears to be above the squalid business of politics. His association with the Persian Gulf war makes him look like a bold leader and a winner in an era of weakness and waffling. As a black man who climbed to the top of his profession, he is a symbol of racial harmony in a time of division.
Yet there's less to Powell than meets the eye. He was a thoroughly political soldier who knew how to work the bureaucracy and avoid trouble. He was close to My Lai and Iran-Contra without sustaining any collateral damage but also without doing anything to expose or correct the wrongdoing.
Powell was a reluctant warrior who opposed the use of force everywhere, even in the Persian Gulf. He helped end that conflict too soon. The so-called Powell Doctrine which demands domestic unanimity and the assurance of victory before the battle is joined makes U.S. power essentially unusable.
All of that would be raked over ad nauseam if Powell were to run for president, and he's shown himself to be thin-skinned when questioned. He'd also have to take positions on divisive issues like abortion, welfare, Medicare cuts, the budget, Bosnia. As soon as he did, he'd cease to be everybody's favorite alternative and become just another polarizing pol.
Furthermore, if Powell wants to be president, he can't expect to be handed the job, like another promotion up the ranks. He's going to have to join a party and enter its primaries. But professional Republicans who have scrambled near the top of the greasy pole after a lifetime of trying aren't just going to roll over for some Colin-come-lately.
On the Democratic side, wresting a nomination from a sitting president is nearly impossible, even from a weak one like Clinton. Ted Kennedy couldn't knock off unpopular Jimmy Carter in 1980.
That leaves Powell the vice presidency, which would hardly satisfy the public desire for a larger-than-life, above-politics savior and might be too cramping for Powell's vanity. Or he could try a third-party or independent run, but no one has ever gotten to the top that way. And the risk-averse, conventional Powell has never taken the bold, iconoclast route to any place.
Even if Powell were to run and win, he'd be likely to end up worse off than he is today; generals-turned-president have been disappointments. Grant ruined his reputation with a scandal-ridden administration. Even Ike left the job diminished. Though the public wants the decisive leadership of the battlefield translated to Washington, the forces of the Capitol can't be commanded but can only be cajoled.
The public that thinks Powell the answer today would quickly enough decide he was just another part of the problem if he were to reach the highest office. And Powell's smart enough to know it, if his ego doesn't get in the way. Powell may want to be president, but he has shown no desire to do what it takes to get there and seems to have no burning desire to do anything in particular if he were to arrive. For all those reasons, Powell won't run. But if he does, he and the country will probably live to regret it. by CNB