Jackson, Advisers Look Toward Another Run for White House

Two-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson said Thursday that he is thinking anew about running in 1996 now that retired Gen. Colin L. Powell has ruled out a White House bid.

Less than 24 hours after Powell announced he would not run, Jackson said at a news conference that he has met with his advisers over the past few days to “assess the landscape.”

“I still have the fire in my belly and clear vision in my head about what a President ought to do to make the nation better,” said the founder of the Rainbow Coalition and a presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988. “I have a plan to revitalize our economy to make us more fiscally responsible, to change our priorities, to make us more humane,” he said.

Jackson said it was premature to say when he would reach a decision.

But while criticizing what he said was President Clinton’s inattention to urban issues, Jackson suggested that he would stay on the political sidelines if the President begins to pay more attention to cities and racial inequities.

“I feel that Clinton, if he focuses on the covenant, honors it and addresses those people who elected him, he could be elected again. But if he abandons that base, then that base has no allegiance to him,” he said.

Jackson said it would be difficult for him to run in the Democratic primaries and that an independent candidacy would be the only way to “open the process up.”

Jackson, while praising Powell personally, also said the general took a “step backward” by joining the Republican Party.

Noting GOP plans to cut popular federal programs for the poor, Jackson said Powell will have to do “some very heavy lifting” to meet his goal of making the party more attractive to black voters.