Saturday, October 18, 2008

Powell

Does it hurt or help?
Is Gen. Colin Powell getting ready to endorse Sen. Barack Obama on "Meet the Press" this Sunday? Two sources close to Powell, speaking on the condition of anonymity, predict that he will. On the record, a third, Ken Duberstein, a Washington lobbyist and former White House chief of staff, didn't flatly deny it. "You can say what you want," he told me, "but I didn't tell you that and neither did Powell."

OK, true enough.
If you were Barack, would you tell him to keep it to himself?
If Powell does endorse Obama, racial pride will have something to do with it, which is understandable. Powell has been a trailblazer himself, and he admires Obama's unflappability and skill in rising so quickly through the ranks of American politics.
He would be endorsing because they're both black?

While Powell is personally close to McCain, and has been for many years, he seems to have taken a special interest in making himself available, behind the scenes and from time to time, to discuss foreign policy and defense issues with the novice Illinois senator. I believe Powell feels a responsibility to help Obama out, almost as if a member of the family were taking on a tough new job.

He would abandon his long personal relationship with McCain because Barack is a brother?
However, if Powell does endorse, it will have less to do with American sociology than world affairs. Powell simply has no use anymore--if he ever had any--for the neo-con cowboys he thinks misled the country (and him) into a mistaken and costly war in Iraq.
If I were Barack, I'd tell Powell to keep it to himself.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

If Powell could possibly endorse Obama, he would definitely lose all credibility with me. I always had nothing but respect for Colin Powell.

Anonymous said...

Then again Todd, if you were Barack Obama, you probably wouldn't be running for president.

OK, so the one guy that RATIONAL conservatives have looked to since realizing that the Republican party is a fiscal and moral mess is supporting Obama, it must be because they're "brothers". Quite an incendiary remark if you ask me. Not to mention just the kind of fallacious statement I would expect from a conservative faced with disillusionment.
Did you ever stop to think that Powell is supporting Obama because they're both WHITE???

Or could it be that in making this endorsement of Obama, Colin Powell actually IS the level-headed man of integrity you thought he was (before you disagreed with him)?

Todd Feinburg said...

dropright - you're not paying attention. It wasn't my suggestion that race was an issue in Colin's decision - that was offered as an explanation in the Newsweek article I was excerpting in my post.