Lamar Alexander took six years to run for president and yesterday announced what was evident early in those years to the electorate — that he lacked whatever intangible characteristics are essential to becoming a successful presidential candidate. With his departure from the GOP primary contest yesterday, the race loses a good thinker and a decent individual.

It is true that Mr. Alexander, a former governor of Tennessee, merely came in sixth in a straw poll of dubious accuracy, but the fact that he finished poorly after working so long and hard in Iowa to capture votes suggested strongly that his chances of winning anywhere were slim. In survival-of-the-fittest terms, Mr. Alexander turned out to be the elephant with the short trunk.

Not that he was short on ideas or substance. A Republican rooted in both conservatism and compassion before the party felt required to highlight that combination, he spoke forcefully for individual liberty and the rights of citizens. In a BDN op-ed interview last week, he was asked what unifies us as Americans: “That we are a nation of individuals, not of groups. That if you come to America, you are entitled to rights and privileges not because you are a Chinese American but because you are an individual,” he said. … “You are expected to become an American when you come here. Not because you look a certain way, or have a certain color or a certain place but because you subscribe to these principles.”

It is fair to say that Mr. Alexander was not an exciting speaker. Perhaps he felt his chances were good for 2000 because the nation recently had had enough excitement in the White House. Perhaps it has not. In any event, it was clear that Mr. Alexander did not fit into the shrill, slick political campaigns of the 1990s. And for that he can be proud.