Like most Americans, I am disappointed that Colin Powell did not run for president. I am disappointed that a man of such character and accomplishment will not be in the race. I am disappointed that 1996 will not be the year when America elects its first black president.
How does one bring Powell back to center stage, which is where a large number of Americans want him to be? And how can the chances of Powell's chosen party, the Republican Party, be enhanced in the coming presidential election?With one bold stroke: Assuming, as seems fairly safe today, that Bob Dole receives the presidential nomination at the Republican convention in San Diego, he should turn to Powell and tell him that he wants him to be his secretary of state - and vice president.
There is no constitutional impediment to such an arrangement. And there is much precedent for it in other democracies. Indeed, in most parliamentary democracies it is routine, almost required, for a leader-in-waiting to have a serious Cabinet post. Vice President and Secretary of State Powell would be comparable to a high-ranking Cabinet officer in a parliamentary system - a chancellor of the exchequer in Britain (as John Major was) or a foreign minister of Israel (as Shimon Peres was) - who might be expected to inherit the top job should something happen to the prime minister.
The American vice presidency being the worst job in the Western world after Prince of Wales, it is understandable that good people have turned it down before, and that Powell has said he would turn it down if offered next year. A vice president who is secretary of state at the same time, however, is a vice president with a real job. Such a vice presidency would not be what it has traditionally been: an office of all pomp, no power and little consequence, except for its establishment of a line of succession.
There are serious reasons, of course, why Powell declined to run for national office. Wouldn't these reasons - the loss of privacy; the assaults on his character, record and family; the grind and grunge of national campaigning - dissuade him from this run too?
Perhaps. But it is clear that what Powell shrank from in his fateful decision was not the presidency but the pursuit of the presidency. These are quite different challenges. I doubt Powell feels he is not up to the former.
It is hard for anyone to be in public life, as in any other line of endeavor, and not aspire to the most important office. Powell, moreover, is one of those rare Americans who seem destined to be president. The question for him is how to get there.
The classic route of running the presidential gantlet, the full sprint through the primaries to Election Day, daunts him. Who can blame him? The American way of choosing a president is quite mad. Powell is not the first good man to decline its absurd trial by ordeal.
However, a vice-presidential run, particularly for someone as well-liked and respected as Powell (vs., say, the unknown and unfortunate Dan Quayle) is quite a different experience. The vetting of a vice president is certainly a painful experience, but it is nothing like the vetting of a presidential candidate, particularly in the wild, frenetic primaries. Powell will have finessed that process and, assuming his ticket wins, placed himself in perfect position, as the already vetted quasi-incumbent, to run for the presidency in 2000 - as painless a route to the office as is imaginable.
Given the fact that Bob Dole would be 73 upon inauguration and 77 at the end of his first term, it is highly unlikely that he would even seek a second term. This actuarial fact would enhance not only the value but the political impact of the '96 Republican vice presidential nomination. Generally speaking, vice presidential candidates have little effect on the outcome of a race. Not so a No. 2 on a ticket whose No. 1 is expected to step down after one term. Not so a vice president who would be the natural inheritor of the presidency within four years.
I said that there is no constitutional impediment to serving as both vice president and Cabinet officer. Of course, there is no precedent. All the more reason to do it this once. It will establish a precedent. It will encourage future presidents to give their vice presidents useful employment. It will transform the single most demeaning office in American government - think, for example, of the abuse of Vice President Hubert Humphrey - and elevate it to an office of pitch and moment.
Win-win for everyone.