If running for president and winning the White House were simply tests of persistence, stamina and desire, then Lamar Alexander could count on being sworn in on a late January morning in 2001.
No one in recent times has worked harder or longer, logged more miles across the country, spent more time in Iowa and New Hampshire or dialed so relentlessly for the dollars that fuel a campaign. But the problem for Alexander, 58, the former governor of Tennessee and education secretary under President Bush, is that all the effort has yielded little success.
Almost from the day that Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, and every day since 1995, Alexander has pursued the Republican presidential nomination. On Tuesday at the state capitol here, to the surprise of no one, he formally declared his candidacy again.
“I am here this morning to declare that I will be a candidate for president of the United States because I am ready to help our country face the challenges of a new century–and make the right choices,” Alexander said to a modest but enthusiastic crowd.
“It will be about the character of our nation and its institutions. This election will be about restoring respect for the presidency. But most of all, this election will be about raising our standards and bringing out the best in America, because that is what it will take to create a second, great American Century.”
His formidable resume, detailed policies, and credible manner and bearing form the contours of a plausible presidential candidate, but Alexander must overcome a perception that he has little chance of winning.
In a field that might include Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole, it is difficult for many strategists to craft an Alexander victory scenario. He is not a darling of the social conservatives who tend to dominate the nominating process, he lacks a famous name and he enters the race with no natural constituency.
Still, he runs and runs and runs.
In 1996, he pursued a strategy that was weighted heavily toward marketing–a signature red-and-black plaid shirt and a slogan (“ABC, Alexander Beats Clinton”)–but voters found him short on product. The shirt, which he wore the day he announced in his hometown of Maryville, Tenn., became a liability and a symbol to critics that he was overly stylized.
“Most Americans learned I had a shirt but I don’t think they knew what kind of leader I had been in Tennessee,” Alexander said in an interview later. “My focus for 20 years has been on education.”
In a studied contrast Tuesday, he was all sobriety and convention. With a flag-draped background in the old state Supreme Court chambers, Alexander’s announcement speech was low-key and substantive.
He criticized President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, saying that his own policies would not be guided by poll results.
He and surrogates, who introduced him, also emphasized that they believe character will be a potent issue in the 2000 race.
He derided Clinton as “the Wizard” and Gore as his “faithful assistant” who have not provided leadership. “Just look behind the screen of their magic show and see what has really happened in the last six years since they took over: Twelve more countries have jumped over us in high-school graduation rates; our taxes are higher; our federal regulation book is thicker . . . and our standards of right and wrong have sunk to a new low.”
Noting that in modern times the only Republican to win the White House on his first try was Dwight Eisenhower, Alexander said: “This time the race is wide open. There is no one whose `turn’ it is.”
He said his campaign would have three pillars: fixing the public education system, lowering taxes and securing Social Security, and strengthening national defense, “especially against terrorism.”
He said he would propose that younger workers be allowed to manage more of their retirement savings, and he proposed ending the capital gains tax, the estate tax and the so-called marriage penalty.
He also proposed tripling the tax deduction for each child, to $8,000, and criticized Republican leaders in Washington for initially focusing this year on a 10 percent across-the-board tax cut.
Alexander’s hopes rest in part on the contrarian reputations of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, who have in other years dealt early favorites profound setbacks. They also rest in the lore of the two states that says candidates must spend time in living rooms and coffee shops to win over voters instead of merely saturating the airwaves with advertising.
He concedes that much attention has been devoted to the prospective candidacies of Bush and Dole, who is expected to announce a presidential exploratory committee Wednesday in Des Moines, but sees their prospects as wildly inflated.
“I figure at this rate Bush will be elected and on Mt. Rushmore before 2000, so I will still have a chance to be elected then,” Alexander said. He said many Republicans are so desperate for victory in 2000 that they are gravitating to the Bush and Dole names as a first instinct.
Alexander continues to run, undeterred, saying that when a Bush or Dole falls, the fall will be dramatic. And the man who never stopped running will be the one who is left standing.
