Run For President

WASSHINGTON -- The most celebrated new Republican, Gen. Colin Powell, has said he would entertain an offer to serve in the Cabinet of Democratic President Clinton.At first blush that may seem like a marriage made in political heaven, a partnership at which Bill Clinton ought to leap.Having General Powell come aboard would sure disarm those Republicans who have said that this president is of such bad character that he doesn't deserve to sit in the Oval Office.When the general said ''You always listen to your president'' when possible public service is at issue, he was saying that the grandeur of the office is powerful, and that Mr. Clinton has not diminished the presidency to the point that a patriotic American would refuse his call.

WASHINGTON -- With a "full heart" and no regrets, a gracious, exceedingly composed Bob Dole faced the crumbling of his long-held presidential dreams last night -- a defeat that almost certainly marked the close of an illustrious political career."

WASHINGTON -- Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on television the other day that he's ''probably'' going to announce within the next week or so ''that I'm not going to run.''For president, that is. Maybe it's because he's under the impression that he already is president. Or more likely because reality has newly jumped up and hit him in the face.The latest Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today reports that 59 percent of voters surveyed disapprove of the job he's doing, to only 27 percent who approve.

COLIN L. POWELL may have decided not to run for president, but this is no way diminishes the profound impact his non-candidacy has had on an America whose racial divide has lately been revealed in all its intensity. For him (and the country), the "important thing" was that the nation had arrived at a point where the possibility exists that an African American can be elected president.This will happen sometime, he predicted. The 58-year-old general noted that in his lifetime he had moved from not being served in restaurants to the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a prospective run for the nation's highest office.

Washington -- Suppose you wanted to be president. Was there ever a better time to try? Only one key piece is missing, but when it falls into place we may well see presidential candidates swarming at us like fire ants.The one rule in this speculation is that a serious presidential candidate must have a chance to win a plurality of the popular vote in next year's election. In a straight two-party race one candidate must get 50.1 percent of the vote, a difficult threshold without the organized help of a national party.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The 1996 U.S. presidential election is more than a year away, but already the names of hopeful candidates are becoming household words: Dole, Gramm, Bradley, Josh the Wonder Dog . . .Josh the Wonder Dog?The Pasadena, Md., mutt is one of 173 office-seekers who have officially filed to run for the country's top job. The list includes mainstream and obscure candidates, from the head of the Prohibitionist Party to north Florida developer Charles Collins, who is hoping to become the next Ross Perot.

WASHINGTON -- I don't know what Jesse Jackson is waiting for.I don't know why he is hesitating to run for president of the United States.Those who claim to know say he has ruled out running as a Democrat but has not decided yet whether to run as an independent.Last September, on "Face the Nation," Jackson said challenging Clinton for the presidency as an independent "must be a live option."Last Sunday, again on "Face the Nation," Jackson said running against Clinton "is very much a live consideration."

WASHINGTON -- Boarding a plane in Miami in November 1987, Sen. Bill Bradley ran into a political reporter who asked him why he wasn't running for the Democratic nomination for president. The field of candidates, then known as "The Seven Dwarfs," seemed ripe for the taking, the reporter suggested."It isn't the right time for me," the New Jersey Democrat replied. Sure, he conceded, he would like to be president some day. But the timing just didn't fit. Then he spent the next two hours leaning over the back of his seat and picking the reporter's brain on every development in the campaign to date.

IT IS bemusing to hear learned pundits discuss the prospects of a Colin Powell run for the presidency in 1996. The most popular scenario has the retired Army general leading a late and yet-to-be-defined third-party charge to save American voters from the limitations of a presumed Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole (or Phil Gramm) choice.Mr. Powell has done nothing to encourage the speculation, remaining tight-lipped even about his political party affiliation. He has rebuffed the embrace of Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

IS COLIN POWELL going to run for president? Steve Ambrose hopes so. He has left his jobs as professor of history at the University of New Orleans and director of the Eisenhower Center to work to get General Powell in the race.Ambrose is an old Hopkins and Evening Sun hand who is generally recognized as the academic expert on Dwight Eisenhower. (He's written biographies of him and Richard Nixon.) Last week, on the day before Powell told an audience he was "preserving my [political] options," Ambrose said in a telephone interview:"After Desert Storm I wrote a piece comparing Colin Powell to Ike for the New York Times op-ed page.