In seeking the Republican presidential nomination for the second time, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander said he will run a bold campaign to give the party direction for the 2000 elections and increase the security of America’s future.

“The Republican Party is adrift looking for a leader, looking for a message,” Alexander said. “Those who are thinking about it are reaching back for the familiar. I am going to give them a choice of reaching for the future.”

Alexander said his campaign will have an agenda uncharacteristic of Republicans.

“Usually we fight Communists and cut taxes,” he said. “I am going to fix schools and help parents, and that is a different beginning for Republicans.”

Republican front-runners Elizabeth Dole and George W. Bush are good people, Alexander said, but the party’s candidate needs to have experience.

“The one thing you don’t want to do if you want to win is put up an uncontested candidate,” he said. “Some of these other candidates have never even held an elected office before. Some of them have only served one term. We usually don’t elect persons like that president.”

Republicans have been successful in the past, but he said the party needs to change its focus and he is the person to make that happen.

“We have helped create this good economy and we won the Cold War,” he said.

“But now we need to look toward the future. I think the future is creating the best schools and help parents be at their best. I think I am better prepared to do that than the other candidates,” he said.

Alexander said his experience makes him the best possible candidate.

“I have been elected twice; I’ve led the governors; I’ve been a university president, cabinet secretary. I’ve ran for president before, and I’ve been tested,” he said.

“I know Al Gore, and I can stand up to him. In the end I think that’s what the party is looking for in a winner. I am ready and maybe the others are not,” Alexander said.

Alexander said President Clinton was reelected in 1996 only because the Republican Party did not present a better alternative to the American people.

“When we offer Americans a real choice, we win. When we fudged the issues, we didn’t,” he said.

“So we should not be afraid to defend the Freedom to Farm Act when the Clinton administration attacks it. We shouldn’t be afraid to give parents choices in schools when they want the government to do that. We should not be afraid to cut taxes when they want to raise them. We need to give them a clear choice,” Alexander said.

With historically high approval ratings for the Clinton administration, Vice President Al Gore has been declared the Democratic front runner and a viable contender for the presidency.

Alexander said the Clinton administration and Gore have been given credit where it isn’t due.

“I am going to suggest that they inherited the good economy and ask the question, ‘Look down the road and see where you think we will be in four years or eight years?'” Alexander said.

“If graduation rates are falling, taxes are higher, military defense is weaker, drugs are coming across the border in a more rapid rate and standards are sinking to a new low, where is that going to leave us in four years? If that isn’t the future you want, come with me,” he said.