Powell is clearly the White House’s worst nightmare: a black centrist with an aura of moral authority many voters have never sensed in Clinton. And even if he chooses not to run, he’s exposing the president’s political weakness at a time when Clinton is facing a thicket of other troubles: flip-flops on taxes, budget wars, damaging hearings on Whitewater and the likelihood of a winter with American troops in Bosnia.
The president’s defensiveness about Powell was in plain view last week. Asked by a group of black columnists and editorial writers about the prospect of running against Powell, Clinton allowed that the general had “a lot of admirable qualities,” but then spun off numbers touting his administration’s diversity: 36 African-Americans appointed to the federal bench, four to the cabinet. “I have to say,” he told the audience, “that no president in modern times has addressed the legitimate concerns of African-Americans as I have in appointing federal judges.” Privately, aides take a blunter line, trashing Powell’s book as the unheroic memoir of a bureaucratic survivor. Clinton and Powell have had an uneasy relationship, and sources say the president is furious about Powell’s attempt to distance himself from the disastrous ‘93 Army Ranger raid in Somalia that killed 18 soldiers. Powell recently told Senate investigators he signed off on the attempt to capture clan leader Mohammed Farah Aidid “with the greatest reluctance,” implying he’d been pressured to agree. But “Powell was lockstep with the others,” says a former aide.
If Powell does decide to run, Clinton insiders are counting on the press to whittle down his numbers. About 10 seconds after he announces, one adviser says hopefully, “a reporter will ask him if he supports the Republican budget.” If he answers yes, the contrast between the president and Powell is sharply drawn. And there’s the chance that the GOP’s right wing will take Powell on and allow Clinton to argue that the opposition is controlled by extremists. But that may be wishful thinking. Even if Colin Power disappears, Bill Clinton’s larger troubles will not.
