Colin Powell’s not someone I particularly admire or respect as a politician, but his endorsement of Obama is both impactful in the message it sends to voters who may be undecided, Powell’s belief in Obama’s ability to act decisively in matters of foreign policy, and the fact that Powell is breaking with his own party by supporting a Democratic nominee.
Here’s an excerpt of the report from CNN on Powell’s endorsement of Obama:
"I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Sen. Barack Obama," Powell said on NBC’s "Meet the Press."
Powell said he was concerned about what he characterized as a recent negative turn of Republican candidate Sen. John McCain’s campaign, such as the campaign’s attempts to tie Obama to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.
"I think that’s inappropriate. I understand what politics is about — I know how you can go after one another, and that’s good. But I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for," he said.
20. October 2008 at 19:19
Powell’s endorsement of Obama does not verify Obama’s judgement, but rather brings Powell’s judgement into question. Powell says that Obama is ready to lead … WHY? … Regardless of Powell’s last minute endorsement, Obama is still the most liberal senator in congress … who accomplished nothing in his meager 3 years in office, except voting present 160 times, and campaigning for President, as well as associating with anti-American racists and domestic terrorists … and, taking America down the road to socialism. Obama betrayed a friendship of 20 years, for personal ambition. Powell betrayed his friendship with McCain. McCain did not betray his fellow prisoners, even during 5 years of torture. These facts speak volumes about who these men really are, and whether or not we can trust them.
21. October 2008 at 01:50
Howard,
You’re obviously not a big Obama fan, and I’m not going to try and change your mind–fine by me if you want to support McCain. While I’m not a big Obama supporter, I definitely believe that he’s got the intellectual muscle to run the country, which I can’t say is true of McCain IMO, nor of Palin (when compared to Biden). I wouldn’t characterize Powell’s endorsement of Obama as a matter of questionable judgment; he’s simply endorsing the person he feels is most qualified for the job in HIS opinion. It’s interesting that he felt strongly enough to defect from his party’s candidate.
FWIW, I think you buy into the labels put on Obama by Fox News and other reflexive conservative media too easily–I’m assuming by ‘anti-American racists’, you’re referring to Rev. Wright, and by ‘domestic terrorists’ you’re referring to Bill Ayers being in the Weather Underground. Rev. Wright is no less or more controversial than Pat Robertson, esp. when you compare the two men’s comments about 9/11, and no one to my knowledge has condemned a Republican candidate for having Robertson’s endorsement.
McCain designated Rev. Hagee as his spiritual advisor, and Hagee gave sermons where he said that Hitler was doing God’s work by killing Jews (you can listen to/read Hagee’s sermons online–very alarming), and that Hurricane Katrina was God’s vengeance on homosexuals because there was due to be a flagrant Gay Parade on the day that Katrina struck. This is completely hateful and ridiculous, but interestingly it wasn’t Hagee’s comments about Gay people that got him in trouble (though it should have) with McCain, it was his comments about Hitler and the Jews that got him in trouble.
McCain’s financial advisor, Phil Gramm, was directly responsible for the lack of regulation of the banks that were responsible for the current financial crisis–Gramm has/will cause a lot more suffering to innocent Americans through his actions than Bill Ayers ever caused as a member of the Weather Underground in the 1960s.
In terms of socialism, you only have to look at who contributes money to Obama’s campaign to see that Obama is backed by identical corporate donors (with the one exception of oil companies) to those of McCain. Do you really think AT&T would give money to a candidate they thought was a Socialist?
I guess we’ll find out whether Obama is a Socialist when he wins the election on 11/04, and sends Palin back to Alasks.