This time around, Powell once again showed that he is the most compelling public speaker on the GOP bench, fusing traditional Republican themes with his own brand of social liberalism. He spoke movingly about children in poverty and in adult prisons. Gov. Bush certainly tries, but he does not come close to Powell's power. Who else could get a crowd of GOP delegates in a frenzy calling for the construction of fewer jails?

And Powell spoke directly about race, in language that made some of the convention delegates seem uneasy at times, judging by their tepid applause. "I've seen kids in utter despair. I've visited kids in jail doing adult time for crimes they've committed. They are part of a growing population of over 2 million Americans behind bars ..." Powell said.

"Most of them are men and the majority of those men are minorities. The issue of race still casts a shadow over our society. We have much more work to do and a long way to go to bring the promise of American to every single American."

Powell spoke of moral issues without pontificating -- addressing the need to stop drug abuse among America's children, and calling on Americans to "place into the heart of every child growing up in America the moral strength never to fall for the destructive lure of drugs."

He also reprimanded his own party, particularly on the issue of affirmative action, which Powell supports. "We must understand the cynicism that exists in the black community. The kind of cynicism that is created when some in our party miss no opportunity to roundly and loudly condemn affirmative action that helped a few thousand black kids get an education, but hardly a whimper is heard from them over affirmative action for lobbyists who load our tax codes with preferences for special interests."

He talked about the problem of too many fatherless families in minority communities, as well as the importance of increasing accessibility to health care. "Every child must have quality healthcare," Powell implored to tepid applause. But he brought the house down in his plea for school vouchers: "What are we afraid of?"

Powell's speech brought power and meaning to Bush's stump speech sound bites of "leaving no child behind" -- borrowed, ironically, from the liberal Children's Defense Fund -- and "compassionate conservatism," but said he is convinced Bush is serious about bringing the Republican Party back to the party of Abraham Lincoln. "Gov. Bush welcomes the challenge. He wants the Republican Party to wear that mantle again," Powell said.

But if and when it does, a lot of people on that floor of the First Union Center Monday are going to have to give up their credentials next time around.

"You liked that speech, didn't you?" a black convention security guard teased his white colleague after Powell left the stage. The white guard only squinted an I-don't-know kind of squint, and his buddy laughed. "You guys picked the wrong guy for president."

Recent Stories