Unqualified White Liberals

Rush nails it - again. If Powell is not being influenced by race, then where are all the unqualified, inexperienced white liberals he's been moved to support?

Rush Limbaugh said Colin Powell's decision to get behind Barack Obama appeared to be very much tied to Obama's status as the first African-American with a chance to become president.

"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race," Limbaugh wrote in an e-mail. "OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."

It is odd that Powell was so influenced by 7 weeks of watching Barack.

As for Powell's statement of concern this morning about the sort of Supreme Court justices a President McCain might appoint, Limbaugh wrote: "I was also unaware of his dislike for John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia. I guess he also regrets Reagan and Bush making him a four-star [general] and secretary of state and appointing his son to head the FCC. Yes, let's hear it for transformational figures."

Race Bias

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Sunday that he will be voting for Sen. Barack Obama, citing the Democrat's "ability to inspire" and the "inclusive nature of his campaign."

"He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

And he's right. This could be the moment - with Barack as President, and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid running congress - that liberals get to come out of the closet and push an overtly socialist agenda without being afraid to admit it.

"Obama displayed a steadiness. Showed intellectual vigor. He has a definitive way of doing business that will do us well," Powell said.

Powell said he questioned Sen. John McCain's judgment in picking Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate because he doesn't think she is ready to be president.

Is this a good endorsement for Obama to brag about? I'm not so sure.

Senator McCain's campaign team admitted privately it would be a blow. But Democratic strategists are divided about the benefits. One said on Saturday he was concerned it could backfire.

He suggested that Mr Powell's decision might be seen as being based on racial solidarity and that could alienate some white voters already reluctant to back Senator Obama on grounds of race.

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.