PERSPECTIVE ON POLITICS : Meet the Next President of the U.S. : He’s got the skills, knowledge and compassion. Could the savior candidate be right under our noses?

It started with the book tour. Throughout the fall of ‘95, he went from one end of the country to the other to talk about his life, the country, and the world, to enable his book to pay back its $5 million-plus advance. While Lamar Alexander and Dick Lugar were checking into the Motel Six in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, he was appearing with Koppel, Letterman, Oprah.

After Bob Dole’s easy victory in Iowa and Phil Gramm’s upset in New Hampshire, he still focused on the book. After the mass dropout of candidates after Super Tuesday--what Newsweek called “the GOP’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre”--he remained detached from the political process. Even as President Clinton continued to falter, he remained doggedly neutral.

But when it became clear that Gramm had surged permanently into the lead before the California primary, leaving Dole battered, bruised and irreparably behind, he took notice. By the first of April, the dimensions of the race were settled: It was Clinton vs. Gramm. The GOP nominating process had been a six-week whirlwind and most citizens were getting their first close look at the putative Republican nominee. They didn’t like what they saw.

“Too Mean to be President?” said Time’s cover, a theme that permeated Gramm’s news coverage and resonated with voters. Yes, they wanted toughness--a quality they found lacking in the incumbent--but they wanted it tempered with some compassion and empathy. Gramm’s folksy references to his old buddy Dickie Flatt didn’t warm voters’ hearts.

The dozens of polls in the first two weeks in April all said the same thing: “Why can’t we ever have a candidate we can vote for?” Time’s new cover headline read “The Evil of Two Lessers.” Ross Perot made his usual noises about re-entering the race, but this time even his die-hard followers demurred.

So it was that he found himself at the National Press Club on April 15. Behind him stood 200 Americans--50 top business leaders, 50 military heroes, 50 members of Congress from both parties, 50 others from the civil-rights movement, labor, sports, religion.

“America’s at a crossroads,” he said. “We’re in danger of losing our most precious possession--the American Dream. I know about the American Dream; I have lived it.

“We’re in danger of losing our role as the country all others look to for leadership. If America doesn’t lead, no one will--and the vacuum will be filled by terrorists and thugs. I know that danger; I spent most of my career fighting it, and I am unwilling to see us lose it by default.

“We desperately need leadership--and instead we get partisan bickering, individuals who put their ideologies and personal ambitions ahead of the country’s needs.

“This was not a step I wanted or intended to take. But I must. I do not intend, however, to run the kind of political campaign a professional politician would. I will not take polls every day, tracking issues and tailoring my positions to fit in order to win. I do not intend to issue position papers detailing my views on every single issue, even though that is a game that the press will push me to play.

“I make one solemn pledge to you: If you honor me with your trust, on every single decision I must make, I will ask one question: What is the best thing for America?”

The response across the country was stunning. Checks poured in. Thousands of people showed up at his storefront campaign offices in cities across the country. The petition drives to get him on the ballot quickly succeeded.

The press was ecstatic; another boring presidential race had overnight been transformed into something truly electric and potentially historic. For the next four months, as the focus shifted toward the two parties’ conventions, there was little negative coverage of the new independent candidate, only reiteration of his inspiring life story and daily reports of his travels and speeches--all of which were met by huge and enthusiastic audiences.

Things got tougher in the fall. Journalists started to criticize his lack of specificity and of political experience. His support faltered momentarily, but rose again late in the race as voters rallied around his calm and clearly functional personality--there were no paranoid reveries or bitter attacks on his enemies, rivals or the press.

The pivotal moments came in the three debates in late September through mid-October. The skilled and articulate Clinton and Gramm both tried to gang up on him, pushing him to declare his positions on tough issues like welfare and abortion, and challenging his experience and qualifications. But well-briefed and cool under fire, he parried all their thrusts and held his two tough rivals at least to a draw.

Bolstered by endorsements from major newspapers across the country (though the Wall Street Journal stubbornly stuck with Gramm), he ended up stitching together the most diverse voter coalition in American history. He got 40% of the votes, including 80% of the black vote (destroying the foundation of the Democratic base), 50% of self-identified fundamentalists and 40 % of conservatives, boring a deep hole in the Republican base. In the end, he captured more than 300 electoral votes to win a clear-cut victory.

For the 10 weeks after the election, he put together a Cabinet drawn from both parties and all walks of life and an equally diverse White House staff. Now the time to govern had come. With a glance at his partner, Vice President-elect Jack Kemp, and his wife Alma, Colin Powell raised his right hand and took a deep breath, ready to begin a new chapter in American history.