THE CANDIDATE OF DREAMS

By J.F.O. McAllister

COLIN POWELL IS THE IDEAL candidate. Nearly 90% of voters familiar with him across the political spectrum have a favorable impression of him. Crowds of mostly white military retirees give him standing ovations. So do classrooms of inner-city kids. CEOs of major companies call his old friends asking how to contribute to his presidential race, while ordinary citizens are collecting signatures in shopping malls and organizing a letter-writing campaign to convince him that the nation is calling him to duty once more. He radiates confidence, integrity, reassurance. Yet he is more than upstanding; he is charismatic, what former Secretary of State George Shultz calls "a big presence." His supporters are convinced he can transform American politics into something nobler and more productive. "If he becomes President," says Gaylord Stevens, a Vietnam vet who brought his son in a Boy Scout uniform to hear Powell speak in San Antonio, Texas, as his own father had brought him to hear J.F.K., "we would have a dream again."

Dreams are tricky things, tantalizing and nebulous. The dream of a black retired general in the White House has been projected onto a man who belongs to no political party and has not, according to those who know him well, either decided to run or decided when he will decide. Many politicos view a Powell run for the White House as a mirage because it rests on a popularity that is broad but untested. Right now he is still the Desert Storm demigod, but once he has to answer attack ads and identify programs to ax, his stature will surely deflate. Even assuming he could survive this inevitable erosion of esteem to retain the margin of victory in November 1996, it's not easy to chart any route that would get him to the top of a national ticket-especially since he has declared, "There is no particular passion in me for politics."

For now Powell's main passion seems to be his private life. His new career as a writer and public speaker lets him spend lots of time with his family, in whom he takes obvious delight: baby-sitting his grandchildren and dining at home with his wife Alma (who doesn't want him to run). After a lifetime of Army housing, he likes being what he calls "General Harry Homeowner" in his $1.3 million mini-mansion in a Washington suburb. The general's missions: repairing drywall to fix water damage from an upstairs shower and messing around with the antique Volvos he loves to restore. Sometimes the papers he sends back to his office-he works mostly from home-have grease stains. Since leaving the Pentagon in September 1993, he has sought to make serious money for the first time. He is putting the finishing touches on an autobiography that earned him a $6 million advance. Powell also gives speeches for up to $60,000 each to corporate groups and universities. But many speeches are for free: to kids in inner-city schools, to inmates at a prison in Lorton, Virginia, to a veterans' hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Powell quietly helps out at a homeless shelter in Washington, organizing a clothing drive and delivering mattresses on the roof of his station wagon.

A recent self-made millionaire with an unaffected social conscience--that explains a lot of Powell's electoral appeal. He is the perfect anti-victim, validating America's fondest Horatio Alger myth that a black man with few advantages can rise to the top without bitterness and without forgetting who he is. Powell praises entrepreneurship and worries about the Demo-crats' tendency to embrace victimhood. Yet he openly acknowledges his own large debt to government activism. The son of hardworking Jamaican immigrants, he grew up poor in the Bronx and benefited from the fine education available in public schools and at City College of New York, to which he commuted on cheap public transport. He graduated in geology in 1958 with a C average, but his real love was the Reserve Officer Training Corps, whose camaraderie and order intrigued him. That summer, as a $222.30-a-month lieutenant, he boarded a Greyhound bus bound for infantry school.

His career was meteoric: two tours in Vietnam, second in his class at the Army's Command and General Staff College. But Powell's finest hours were in the Pentagon. Serving as military aide to a series of top civilian officials, he impressed each one with his loyalty, intelligence and political skill. Lawrence Korb, an Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration, calls Powell "as astute a politician as I've met." After serving as Ronald Reagan's National Security Adviser, Powell rejoined the Army in 1989. But within a year George Bush promoted him to become, at 52, the youngest ever Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the position from which he directed the Gulf War.

The war's stunning success earned him enough accolades for a lifetime. But critics chide him especially for failing, despite his immense prestige after the Gulf War, to reshape radically the post-cold war armed forces by slashing and consolidating redundant units. Others complain he verged on insubordination by failing to back President Clinton's plan to open the military to gays. Powell now says he has no objection to gay couples raising children; the important thing is to provide all kids with a family's love and discipline.

Is that an attempt to mend fences with gays before a presidential run? If so, it's one of many recent signs that he is seriously weighing a race for the White House. He says he "hasn't ruled out" a run; last month he said an independent candidate for President in 1996 would "throw some more fun into the race." Powell has taken public positions on more divisive issues than many realize, from the balanced-budget amendment (he doesn't like tinkering with the Constitution because Congress can't find the will to spend responsibly) to abortion (he thinks there's no excuse for unwanted pregnancy, would prefer that women carry all fetuses to term but would not ban abortions). Those who want him to be President think the press overrates the importance to voters of detailed positions anyway. They think Americans will simply trust Powell to make reasonable choices, based on his long record of competence and moderation and his obvious self-confidence.

If there are any of the usual politician's improprieties lurking in Powell's closet-sexual, financial-no hint of one has ever come to light. Working for Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Powell did have a small role in the Iran-contra scandal, facilitating the transfer from Army stocks of one of six missile shipments to Iran. His unrevealing congressional testimony about the affair seemed "completely out of character," says Korb. But even Lawrence Walsh, the Iran-contra special prosecutor who criticized Powell's testimony in an August 1993 report for being "at least misleading," says now that "Powell didn't say anything that was knowingly false . I myself don't think it is a significant matter."

Attractive as candidate Powell might be, political pros still don't see any easy route by which he can get himself to the top of a national ticket. If he joins the race late, he may have little choice but to run as an independent. But third parties can't qualify for federal funds until after the presidential election, and then only if they get 5% of the vote. It's easy to see why Powell, who's never failed at anything, might be tempted to take the vice presidency, which Dole has hinted he will offer; three of the last four Republican Presidents held the No. 2 job first. Then again, Powell's luster could be dimmed by four years in a President's shadow. If Powell wants the top job, now may be his time. A big book tour will take him to at least 20 cities around the country in September. From that blizzard of free publicity, Powell's promoters figure it's no big leap to New Hampshire and beyond. If so, the motto of the campaign will have to be the last of the 13 rules Powell kept under the glass of his Pentagon desk: "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."

--With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett and Mark Thompson/Washington [BOX]

COLIN POWELL

AGE ON INAUGURATION DAY 1997 59

BIRTHPLACE New York City

HOMETOWN McLean, Virginia

EDUCATION City College of New York, B.S. in geology; George Washington University, M.B.A.

MILITARY SERVICE Served two tours in the Army in Vietnam; moved up all the way to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

CURRENT JOB Public speaker and writer

FAMILY Married; three children

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Committed centrist; has thrived in varied Administrations

MAJOR FEAT Directing the U.S.-led coalition to victory in the Persian Gulf War

PET ISSUE Personal responsibility

BIGGEST PLUSES Integrity, popularity

BIGGEST MINUS Lack of expertise on domestic issues and political campaigns

ODDS OF WINNING ELECTION 12 to 1

With reporting by LAURENCE I. BARRETT AND MARK THOMPSON/WASHINGTON