Barack Obama’s Puzzling Embrace of the Colin Powell Endorsement

Well, I have to tell you I was somewhat puzzled by the ecstatic response of Barack Obama and his campaign to Colin Powell’s belated endorsement. Did I really hear Gwen Ifil on the PBS News Hour this evening suggest that the Powell endorsement settled once and for all any lingering questions about Obama’s experience or lack thereof?

And I had a flashback to that oft-played video of Powell making the case for war by speaking convincingly at the United Nations about the certainty of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Think, people. Obama is the candidate who used his speech in 2002 at an anti-war rally -before he became a United States Senator – as grounds for the American people to elect him our president.

So how credible is Colin Powell’s support for Barack Obama at this stage of the game?

I’ll let Marc Rubin answer that question:

“Colin Powell, who in spite of an illustrious career will always be known as the man who, as Secretary of State made the presentation to the UN which made the case for the most dishonest and disastrous foreign policy and military decision in American history, has endorsed --guess who? -- Barack Obama as the person who has the judgment to be President.


“Okay you can stop laughing now.

“Just as a reminder, this is the Secretary of State who made a case for war based solely on the information received from an informant code named Curveball who even at the time of Powell's UN speech, the CIA had warned was an alcoholic and proven liar, someone who had even lied about being first in his graduating class at college ( sounds a little like Obama's claim of being a Constitutional Law professor even though there is no record of Obama having taught a single class in Constitutional law at Harvard or anywhere else) and that none of his information could be confirmed. This is the person who is now telling us Obama has the judgment to be President.

“But for anyone who sees McCain as four more years of Bush and couldn't vote for him on those grounds ,this has to send them back to square one. Especially since Obama has stated that Republicans were the party of ideas, and has embraced many of Bush's positions like those on government spending for faith based initiatives, retroactive immunity for the telecoms and off shore drilling. And now Bush's Secretary of State, who used his own prestige and judgement to sell the war in Iraq to the American people is now telling us what he thinks is best for the country.


“So Powell’s endorsement is not so much of an endorsement as it is an indictment of everything that is wrong with Obama and how unqualified he is for the job.”

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