He calls former friend Clinton an "amiable windsock." No, it is not Dole. He has suggested he would jump into the '96 Presidential race if the circumstances were right. It is not Powell either. The newest face on the political horizon is Richard Lamm, three-time former governor of Colorado, current lecturer at the University of Denver and Ross Perot's choice to be the Reform Party of California's nominee to challenge Dole and Clinton. Jonathan Alter of Newsweek suggested he may be a "sacrificial Lamm" lured into the race to give the appearance that it is "open" before Perot is anointed and takes the helm. But that may not be the case both because Perot has stepped aside before and because Lamm is in a better position to become the truthteller who will make Clinton and Dole face the future.
Perot may not care that Lamm has a greater potential to hurt Clinton rather than Dole or that he has little chance to win. Lamm is in the unique position to lose and, in doing so, to refocus the country. While Ralph Reed publishes his new treatise on Christian politics, Richard Lamm discusses the bankruptcy of Medicare and social security. Lamm proclaims, "I don't think of myself of as president, I think of myself as Paul Revere. If I run, I'd go after all the sacred cows"--teachers unions, trial lawyers, the Christian Coalition.
I first met Dottie and Richard Lamm when they were here at Dartmouth this summer as visiting Montgomery fellows. At that time, Dottie Lamm was in the spotlight as she was preparing to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing to discuss her concerns, particularly about world population. Richard Lamm's lectures on the aging population and the impending entitlement crisis took somewhat of a secondary role to his wife's work, but when World Outlook was able to interview them, we found them to be a team who worked together with a deep concern for a broad range of issues.
Richard and Dottie Lamm have traveled all over the world looking at family planning clinics, social security systems and various health care plans. Through their various policy-making groups and government service, they have made the study of alternatives to the status quo their lives' work. Whether or not you agree with their opinions, it is difficult not to admire their persistence, dedication and, something rare in politics, their sincerity. Just when the campaign for the presidency reached its most cynical with the courting of female voters by Dole, along come the Lamms to remind us not to be cynical. Instead of settling for the lesser of two evils, they challenge us to force both Dole and Clinton to confront the tough issues, issues that go far beyond the current abortion debate. Abortion is an important and difficult issue, but, as Lamm points out, what are we going to do when our entitlement system produces fifty Floridas?
