CNN’s Lou Dobbs speaks at Roger Williams University last night.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

BRISTOL — No, Lou Dobbs did not announce his candidacy for the presidency during a speech at Roger Williams University last night.

Despite an audience member holding up a “Lou Dobbs for President” sign, despite the CNN anchorman’s own call for an independent candidate and despite a reference from the university’s leader to an Internet campaign urging Dobbs to throw his name in the ring, he did not address the issue.

Last month, the Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a group dedicated to fighting illegal immigration, launched an effort on the Web to draft Dobbs into the presidential race as an independent. In response, the 62-year-old host of Lou Dobbs Tonight told various media outlets that he had no plans to run but with the caveat that he “cannot say never.”

After a half-hour speech to a full house in the university’s gymnasium, one student gave Dobbs the perfect opportunity to promote himself as a presidential hopeful, when he asked the newsman to name a “viable third-party candidate.”

Dobbs, however, wouldn’t bite, opting instead for gloom.

“If this is the best we can do,” he said in reference to the Democrats and Republicans that remain in the race, “then we’re in a hell of a lot of trouble.”

Dobbs has morphed from a financial journalist to a vocal opponent of illegal immigration to a self-proclaimed “independent populist,” but it appears that he isn’t yet ready to make the leap from media to politics.

Dobbs spoke at Roger Williams as part of the university’s Civil Discourse lecture series, a program started by university president Roy J. Nirschel that over the past three years has included visits by Nobel Peace Prize-winner David Trimble, author Salman Rushdie and conservative activist Gary Bauer.

Over the course of his sometimes cynical and frequently sarcastic talk, Dobbs touched on some of his favorite subjects: immigration, border security, trade agreements and what he called in the title of a 2006 book, “the war on the middle class.”

Some highlights:

•He hammered home his hard-line position on immigration in response to one question.

“This nation is English-only. Illegal immigrants should be in jail. I know it’s tough, but you know what? There’s a legal way to do business.”

•He parodied what he believes is the media’s reluctance to cover the important issues in the presidential race and news outlets’ focus on the candidates’ race, gender and religion.

“We have learned that Barack Obama is a black man. We’ve learned that Hillary Clinton is a woman. Did you know that Mitt Romney is a Mormon? Mike Huckabee believes in God. Everyday.”

•He was dismissive of the Bush administration’s economic-stimulus package, which includes refunds for all taxpayers.

“In economics, there’s a word for that: stupidity.”

But it was partisan politics that came in for the greatest criticism. As Dobbs sees it, only a select group benefits from the two-party system — corporate America and its “three-piece suit lobbyists.”

“We are confronted by many challenges,” said Dobbs, who wore a gray pinstripe suit, “but the greatest challenge of all is that the American people are not being represented in our capital.”

The capacity crowd was mostly supportive of Dobbs, cheering and applauding him throughout his talk and giving him a standing ovation when he finished.

During a question-and-answer session, a woman who identified herself as a law professor at the university and who was clearly at odds with Dobbs, asked him to clarify his own recommendations for immigration policy.

Dobbs said he would tighten the country’s borders and increase the size of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but then talked generally of supporting a “rational, effective and humane” policy.

In a move that drew some laughs, Christopher Young, who ran in the Democratic primary won in 2006 by U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, took to the microphone to tout his latest run for the Senate, this time against incumbent Jack Reed.

“Would you have me on your program?” he asked Dobbs.

The anchor assured him that he would if he could get Reed to come on, too.

akuffner@projo.com