The latest Powell scenario is the secret rescue fantasy of some Republican leaders. They see chaos ahead: Dole’s campaign collapses early. Neither Phil Gramm nor Lamar Alexander can achieve liftoff. Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan rack up delegates in the front-loaded primaries, but mainstream Republicans regard both as flaky. or worse. The party begins to split, and then . . . The mechanics of what could come next are sketchy. If no single candidate wins a majority, the GOP could have its first brokered convention since 1920 and choose a Jack Kemp–or Powell, who is the party’s dream keynote speaker. If Buchanan wins-still very unlikely–the moderates might form a new party, with Powell as its nominee.
Genuine draft: Powell himself is playing it cool. Publicly, his position is unchanged from last November, when he ruled out a run. His closest friends say that he has not moved from that. He will not seek the GOP nomination, and his wife, Alma, remains opposed. But, Powell’s friends say, that does not mean he would say no to a genuine draft. As one put it, “The door is closed. But it isn’t locked.”
Powell’s intimates say he is uncomfortable with the image of himself as a man on a white horse. But the general is routinely mobbed on his speaking tours, and his book is still a best seller. (And GOP strategist William Kristol is a new phone pal.) Of course, it is in part Powell’s apparent modesty that makes him appealing to voters sick of self-promoting politicians. Clinton is well aware of the appeal. Beneath Clinton’s bemused reference to “President Powell” at the Alfalfa dinner lies a White House anxiety that Powell will somehow get into the race. One White House adviser matter-of-factly told a Powell confidante that if the general were to run, “he’d carry about 75 percent of the vote.”
