(4 of 4)
So it's a good bet, given the general unhappiness with the current choices that the race could very well reopen soon. House Speaker Gingrich is making noises about jumping into the Republican field. Jackson has announced that he is considering a run as an independent. Both of them may be bluffing, of course. Gingrich wants to keep Dole from straying too far from the goals of the Contract with America, but taking the Gingrich line could hurt Dole among the centrist voters who worry about Republican radicalism. Jackson wants to keep Clinton from taking the black vote for granted.
But is Powell out of the vice presidential race? Until the Republican Convention next summer, the '96 campaign will be run in the shadow of the possibility that the reluctant warrior will still agree to be the G.O.P. running mate. And if he does, all calculations about campaign '96 go crashing to the ground once again. Lately even the future isn't what it used to be.
--Reported by Laurence I. Barrett and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum/ Washington and Tom Curry, Charlotte Faltermeyer and Susanne Washburn/New York