Will Powell Endorse Obama?

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Howard Fineman

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 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.

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.

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.

Powell has been careful in public not to criticize his colleagues in the Bush administration nor bluntly call the war a mistake. He came close to saying that at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Conference last summer, but remained droll and elliptical.

An endorsement of Obama would be an indirect but powerful way of expressing his resentments and regrets: refusing to support a fellow Republican who has very Bush-like ideas about how to make America more secure in a world of terror.

"It's not so much about race as it is about foreign policy," a friend of Powell's told me. "He thinks Obama has a lot to learn, but that he has the capacity."

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Posted By: Anonymous (October 23, 2008 at 4:56 AM)

PingBack from http://blog.imageds.com/colin-powell-endorses-obama/

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Posted By: think4yourself (October 21, 2008 at 11:04 AM)

Colin Powell's "endorsement " for Obama is the lastest in a string of PROMISES THAT OBAMA HAS BROKEN TO THE DEMORCATIC PARTY. WHY??

1. If Karl Rove is the Architect of the Bush Administration and then Donald Rumsfield was the Architech of the Iraq War then Colin Powell was ARCHITECH of the argument made before the UN to go TO WAR WITH IRAQ! So why is this such a great endorsement?

Why did Obama seek Powell's endorsement anyway???? McCain I can see but why Obama??? His whole campaign from the Primary to the General Election was running on ALWAYS being against the IRAQ WAR. And anyone who voted for it (Hillary Clinton) was wrong and did not have good judgment. So why would he want an endorsement of someone who made the CASE TO GO TO IRAQ? Why would he want him advising him in any way in his administration?

OBAMA WILL NEVER END THE WAR. NO TROOPS ARE COMING HOME.

Obama Loses my vote!

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Posted By: DianaRo (October 20, 2008 at 4:03 PM)

"I wish the candidate would discuss global poverty more. According to The Borgen Project:

$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.

$540 billion: Annual U.S. Defense Budget."

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