THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 10, 1996 TAG: 9608100255
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO LENGTH: 65 lines
At last count, Colin Powell had written and torn up six drafts of the speech he will deliver Monday night at the Republican convention.
It will be next in significance to Bob Dole's acceptance speech.
It is a tough detail for the general, who has been helped along the way by both national political parties. One big difference in them is evident at first glance.
Powell will look down from the rostrum in San Diego at a plain of mainly white delegates dressed as for church, one great congregation. Given 15 minutes, one could count the few black faces in the audience.
At the Democratic convention in Chicago two weeks hence, the peopled plain will be of mixed races - salt and pepper and bits of other colors. Their dress will become ever more casual throughout the convention's four days.
The Republicans expect that Powell's magnetic presence will lure others of all races from the Democratic Party as well as Independents. Powell must hope that the Republicans produce legislative gains with which to give all Americans the opportunity to realize their potential for productive lives.
For instance, on hold now in the U.S. Senate is a bill sponsored by Dole that would scrap affirmative action. That is not likely to impress minorities as an inducement to change partners. The cry is for replacement with provisions that would prepare ill-armed minorities in a fast-changing society.
Two GOP presidents, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, had the wit and breadth of mind to lift Powell to prominence - eventually to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Two Democratic presidents also helped. In 1948, President Harry Truman, with the stroke of a pen, integrated the armed services, demonstrating that an individual can set massive movements into motion.
In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson, twisting arms and bestowing favors, cleared the path for minorities to the voting booths. Thereafter, congressmen had to seek the black vote, not traduce it.
Powell's freshest loyalties are to Reagan and Bush. The general and his wife spent a vacation in Europe this summer with the Bushes, and George must have had a moment or two to dwell on the Republican mystique as well as Bob Dole's strong points, which are many.
And when the general, always a good soldier, begins to give the coup de gras to the Democratic Party, he may remember, just before striking, the World War I captain who rid the military of its caste system, and the tall Texan, who opened the way for millions to vote.
It is an excruciating dilemma. In two successive Democratic conventions, Jesse Jackson rent his party and the nation, which he held enthralled, with fierce indictments of persisting injustices in the democratic system.
That is not the general's style, for which many will be grateful, but the pull of his performance should focus our attention and prove fully as compelling. With what strength will he attack the Democrats? How hard can he hit Bill Clinton, who, along with everything else he has stolen from the Republicans, sought to inveigle Powell to become his secretary of state? And will Powell touch on social deficiencies of our still-less-than-perfect Union?
And how will the people react to the man whom they saw and sought as a presidential candidate to lead the nation out of desuetude?
He will draw tumultuous applause, of course, but even more important, the people should try to understand and should ponder what he advises.
Let us hope the general, in his own dignified way, gives us hell. ILLUSTRATION: Colin Powell:
GOP guest star
KEYWORDS: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION 1996 by CNB