Sunday, October 19 brought a huge surprise from retired Army General Colin Powell. General Powell publicly endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president.
America trusts Colin Powell. He was Secretary of State under George W. Bush from 2001 through 2005, and he is a Republican. His persona exudes integrity, trustworthiness, and depth. As such, this endorsement may very well cause today’s undecided voters to cast their ballots for Barack Obama.
General Powell’s announcement was made in a seven-minute monologue on MSNBC’s Meet The Press. After a bit of back and forth about what our next president will face, which focused mostly on the economy, host Tom Brokaw turned the floor over to Colin Powell with this lead-in:
General Powell, last year you made a campaign contribution to Senator McCain. You have met twice, at least, with Barack Obama. Are you prepared to make a public declaration of which of these two candidates you’re prepared to support?
Take note of that lead: Brokaw mentioned that Colin Powell has met “at least” twice with Barack Obama. Yet General Powell’s answer gave quite a different picture of his relationship with Senator Obama. Right out of the box, General Powell stated that he’s “gotten to know Mr. Obama quite well over the past two years.” That means that from the very moment in October, 2006 that Obama announced he might think about a run for the presidency, General Powell started to get to know him. This seems quite unusual considering what a long shot Obama’s candidacy seemed at first. And it certainly doesn’t line up with Tom Brokaw’s unchallenged statement that Powell has met with Obama “twice, at least.” So how well does Colin Powell really know Barack Obama?
What is certainly true is that twice during this Meet The Press interview Colin Powell said that either Barack Obama or John McCain would be “a good president.” This will get little play in the mainstream media, but it’s an important fact to point out to your undecided friends. So if General Powell believes that either Obama or McCain would be a good president, why will he be casting his personal vote for Barack Obama? General Powell gave the following reasons.
He said that McCain seemed to be “a little unsure” of how to solve our current economic crisis, but that Obama showed “intellectual vigor.” Is this the same John McCain who was willing to suspend his campaign for the presidency in order to perform his duties as a senator? Who was willing to do the work he’s being paid for? Who, according to a first person account, was a voice of reason and sobriety in the September White House meeting on the economic bailout? Does General Powell not remember that Senator Obama seemed oddly detached from the senate economic bailout debate, despite still drawing his senate salary, stating that he’d come back to Washington only “if I [could] be helpful”? This didn’t ring true.
General Powell stressed the importance of Senator Obama’s communication skills. But all the praise of Obama’s “rhetorical abilities” and “intellectual vigor” may merely have been smoke and mirrors. A golden thread wound through General Powell’s seven minute explanation of his vote: the Republican Party has become too conservative for him.
He declared that Sarah Palin’s presence on the ticket signals a rightward shift in the Republican Party that was not to his liking. And in an odd tribute to Hillary Clinton, General Powell claimed that Barack Obama reaches out to “all villages” because “all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values.” Whisps of “clinging to religion” started to permeate the air, and General Powell quickly confirmed that small town values were not to his liking. He point blank stated, “I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that’s what we’d be looking at in a McCain administration.”
So there it was. You had to hear what wasn’t said. Pro-choice Colin Powell is endorsing pro-choice Barack Obama because he doesn’t want two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.
Not one word about national defense was spoken by the most famous Army general in this country. Not one word was spoken about the dangers of Obama’s socialist ideology of “spreading the wealth.” And though General Powell praised John McCain for being “as non-discriminatory as any one I know,” not one word was spoken about McCain’s bravery, sound judgment, or military experience in these dangerous times.
Despite General Powell’s stated opinion that either McCain or Obama could be a good president, it all came down to conservative appointments to the Supreme Court. This is an important lesson for all of us. Choosing Supreme Court judges is one of the most powerful acts of a president. President McCain would appoint conservative justices, President Obama would not. Because of this, the lives of many of our future citizens hang in the balance.
