Colin Powell endorses Obama

[MorbidKate]

I've always liked Powell and thought he never fit the mould of what a Republican has grown to represent under Bush. I see him more as a Reagan Republican. He'd be a good pick for whatever Obama had in mind but I still think Powell needs his rep rebuilt before he can take on a major role.

[Mulu]

Oh, here's the important part of the clip of Powell's endorsement.

And here he is really taking off the gloves outside the studio.

[Vaelahr]

Joe the Plumber > Colin Powell

[MorbidKate]

Shame the lying bum isn't even a plumber

[Mulu]

I don't know that *anyone* trumps Colin Powell. The man once swept the Republican primary polls without even running. His words reminds of Buckley Jr.'s article that got him fired from the National Review:

My point, simply, is that William F. Buckley held to rigorous standards, and if those were met by members of the other side rather than by his own camp, he said as much.

My father in his day endorsed a number of liberal Democrats for high office, including Allard K. Lowenstein and Joe Lieberman. One of his closest friends on earth was John Kenneth Galbraith.

But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.

[Vaelahr]

Shame the lying bum isn't even a plumber

He does plumbing work. The guy is a plumber, working under the license of a company. He's not the proprietor of the operation who has to have the license to collect sales/use tax in the state of Ohio. There's guys that have been plumbers for 20+ years and still haven't passed all the tests to get their license.

Amazing how Obama's Brownshirts immediately launch into this man like it's another Palin character-assassination job. Truth is, it doesn't matter if he has a plumber's license or whatever. He dared ask the Morninglord a legitimate question. The arrogant Barack Hussein Obama got so overconfident that he admitted his own socialism.

Keep up the "bum" namecalling. It further exposes the left's hypocrisy. They claim to be for the average American but if you dare question their policies, the entire weight of the media and left wing smear machine is brought down on you.

So..... there!

[Lusipher]

Whats funny is shes a canadian leftist. their worse than the idiots we have here in the US.

[ç i p h é r]

I agree with Buckley's criticism of the GOP, but I also agree with Lowry's analysis of Powell's endorsement, which was extraordinarily disappointing to me. For a long time, before the Democratic nominee emerged, I was hoping for a McCain-Powell ticket.

Powell's reasons for swinging to Obama were a watery stew of all the regnant clichés about the campaign. He argued, for example, that John McCain "was a little unsure as to [how to] deal with the economic problems that we were having," in contrast to Obama's "steadiness" and "intellectual vigor."

True, McCain flailed early in the crisis, but he was desperately trying to find something that worked as his poll numbers tanked. If voters had been inclined to mindlessly blame Democrats rather than Republicans for the meltdown, Obama might not have looked so imperturbable.

As for "vigor," perhaps Obama has regaled Powell with detailed explanations of how the market for commercial paper has been disrupted by the credit crunch and other nuances. In public, he's just been blasting eight years of Bush economic policy and deregulation - easy, partisan lines. He hasn't yet taken a position on the AIG bailout and avoided any leader- ship role on the "rescue" plan.

Powell also decried McCain's emphasis on Obama's past with ex-terrorist Bill Ayers as "inappropriate." This is part of the fable that McCain is running the nastiest campaign ever. It depends on ignoring all Obama's attacks. McCain is borderline senile? He and his buddy Rush Limbaugh hate Latinos? He's going to raise your taxes? Well, you've got to break some eggs to make hope and change.

Imagine if a GOP candidate had pledged to take public financing, but instead dealt the campaign-financing system a blow from which it will never recover. If he raised $600 million and out-advertised his opponent by 4-1. This campaign would be pronounced "an obscene effort to buy the election." Powell, no doubt, would be "troubled." But Obama does it and everyone stands back in admiration.

Powell also regretted that the GOP "has moved even further to the right." Even if this is true - the Bush administration that Powell served piled up massive spending even before semi-nationalizing banks - it's an odd brief against McCain, who has never been a conservative crusader, certainly not since his 2000 presidential run.

Powell has endorsed two other presidential candidates in his post-military career, Bob Dole and George W. Bush. McCain is plainly less conservative than Bush, and it's a jump ball with Dole.

While Republicans tolerate the non-ideological McCain, Democrats nominated a candidate who catered to the party's base in the primaries and whose election would vastly empower the relentlessly partisan congressional duo of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. The moderate, sensible Powell is willing to take a flier on a unified Democratic government that will represent a drastic leftward lurch.

This is why his purported reasons for endorsing Obama sound more like excuses. Does Powell want to be with the frontrunner? Is he hoping to cleanse his reputation after the Iraq WMD fiasco? His ultimate motives are known only to him. We must do him the courtesy of taking his case at face value and note only how unconvincing it is - if thoroughly conventional. He'll be back on "Meet the Press."

And by Eugene Robinson:

Colin Powell demonstrated his eponymous "Powell Doctrine" of overwhelming force on Sunday when he endorsed Barack Obama on "Meet the Press." The one-time chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff systematically marshaled his assets to neutralize the Republican endgame strategy, which is to suffuse the air around Obama with a vague mist of terrorism, socialism and "otherness."

Powell was so definitive that it was easy to forget the disconnect: Obama made his reputation with a speech in 2002 warning against war in Iraq, while it was Powell who went before the United Nations and used his credibility to build support for the Iraq invasion.

Powell told Tom Brokaw that he still believes that war was the right course of action, on the basis of what he and other officials knew -- or thought they knew -- at the time. He said he believes the war was mishandled. And he said he still opposes a "deadline" for withdrawing U.S. troops, though he added that a "timeline" for withdrawal is beginning to emerge.

That would be a fair summation of John McCain's position on Iraq, not Obama's. Powell framed his endorsement largely in terms of how McCain, Sarah Palin and their supporters have conducted the campaign against Obama -- and what that conduct says about McCain's judgment.

[Mulu]

Um, no, Powell tried to avoid the war, though once it was obvious that he couldn't stop it, he acted the good soldier and followed orders. Your sources are being very selective.

Don't believe me? Try listening to the man himself.

McCain is borderline senile? He and his buddy Rush Limbaugh hate Latinos? He's going to raise your taxes?

The latino stuff I assume is the negative ads on McCain's immigration policy. It's fair game to attack policy. Taxes are also policy. I have no idea what the senile accusation is referring to, other than perhaps referring to his frequent economic policy changes as "erratic," which they are.

None of Obama's ads rise to the level of calling McCain anti-american or implying that he is a terrorist. Not even close.

And yes McCain is a right-wing conservative. Staunchly pro-life, an absolute Hawk for war, talks about small government, and in the most mind-numbingly stupid move to date thinks it's a good idea to cut government spending during an economic collapse.... The last guy who did that was named "Hoover."

Oh why are we even debating this anymore? Other than Al Qaida claiming they should attack us to put McCain in office to continue the American crusades in the Middle East (they are evil but smart), it seems likely these discussions are already moot.

In other news, Obama channels ALFA....

"Make no mistake about it, after eight years of Bush-McCain economics, the pie is shrinking," he said, prompting a spontaneous round of chants from the audience. "We want pie, we want pie, we want pie," they yelled.

[Zelknolf]

"Make no mistake about it, after eight years of Bush-McCain economics, the pie is shrinking," he said, prompting a spontaneous round of chants from the audience. "We want pie, we want pie, we want pie," they yelled.

... I like pie.

[Mayhem]

Shame the lying bum isn't even a plumber

He does plumbing work. The guy is a plumber, working under the license of a company. He's not the proprietor of the operation who has to have the license to collect sales/use tax in the state of Ohio. There's guys that have been plumbers for 20+ years and still haven't passed all the tests to get their license.

Amazing how Obama's Brownshirts immediately launch into this man like it's another Palin character-assassination job. Truth is, it doesn't matter if he has a plumber's license or whatever. He dared ask the Morninglord a legitimate question. The arrogant Barack Hussein Obama got so overconfident that he admitted his own socialism.

So..... there!

Oh dear.

So, asking a question upon which the answer depends on the target accepting at least 4 lies as truth is a legitmate question?

"I'm about to buy a business" (lie)
"Which turns over more than 250k" (lie)
"and will be affected by your tax plans" (lie - unless it NETs more than 250k a year, which it didn't remotely come close to.
"Therefore you plan is bad for small businesses" (lie)

And despite this, Obama gave the man a solid, detailed answer, but somehow Obama is at fault?

[Mizbiz]

"Make no mistake about it, after eight years of Bush-McCain economics, the pie is shrinking," he said, prompting a spontaneous round of chants from the audience. "We want pie, we want pie, we want pie," they yelled.

Our pie got shrunk by 20%, and our 401 K is gone. But what do I know, I'm Sally Sob Story married to Mike the Mechanic.


Please sir, may I have some pie?

[Swift]

Keep up the "bum" namecalling. It further exposes the left's hypocrisy. They claim to be for the average American but if you dare question their policies, the entire weight of the media and left wing smear machine is brought down on you.

At least they have policies worth questioning, unlike the other side that spends all their money on TV ads to tell the american people that Obama is a doo doo head

[Brokenbone]

Obama isn't the only one who can get impressive endorsements!

[danielmn]

Allah for McCain?