8/29/00 4:45 p.m.
Where's Colin Powell?
Why hasn't Colin Powell weighed in on the defense debate?

By NR's John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

ne of the top three or four sub-debates in the presidential campaign concerns the state of the military. There's hardly a claim about readiness or morale that isn't contested. Which means this is precisely the sort of debate in which an intervention by an authoritative figure can have a large impact. (On Wednesday, Dick Cheney will deliver a major address on the subject.) That's why William Cohen's words are getting so much attention — he has authority both as the secretary of defense and as an alleged Republican. (Why Henry Shelton, the chairman of the joint chiefs, is taken seriously is a little more mysterious, given that he's flip-flopped and then flop-flipped on military readiness over the last three years.)

Colin Powell is certainly an authoritative figure on military matters. Does the former chairman of the joint chiefs have any thoughts about how prepared the military would be for major conflict? About the Democrats' stewardship of the armed forces over the last eight years? If he doesn't have any thoughts on these matters, it might be worth knowing that before he is anointed as our next secretary of state.

We also haven't heard much from John McCain, who would also bring enormous credibility to the debate. But McCain is convalescing from surgery. Powell has no such excuse.

38 at 36
California voters are snubbing their noses at Proposition 38, according to a new Field Poll; they oppose the school-choice initiative 49 percent to 36 percent.

Asian-American Bunk
K. Connie Kang reports in the Los Angeles Times that an Asian-American PAC called the 80-20 Initiative has endorsed Al Gore. The group apparently believes that Asian Americans are ignored because they don't vote as a bloc. If Asian Americans can deliver 80 percent of their votes to the Democrats, on the other hand, on some happy day they might enjoy the political clout currently possessed by blacks.

The group is going to have its work cut out for it. First there is the slight problem that there isn't such a thing as an "Asian American." It's a made-up label covering the families of immigrants from countries that share neither religion, history, language, nor ethnicity. Then there is the tendency of the people so labeled to vote for Republicans. "Asian Americans" voted for George Bush over Bill Clinton and Ross Perot in 1992 (55-31-15 percent) and for Bob Dole over Clinton and Perot in 1996 (48-43-8).

In California, where 7 percent of voters are classified as Asian Americans, the Field poll has them favoring Gore over George W. Bush, but only by 8 points (45 to 37 percent) — less than Gore's lead for the state overall in the poll.