Powell endorses Obama as 'transformational'

[Magnum, NY]

Powell endorses Obama as 'transformational'

Mike Allen, Jonathan Martin Mike Allen – 1 hr 24 mins ago



Retired General Colin L. Powell, one of the country's most respected Republicans, stunned both parties on Sunday by strongly endorsing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president on NBC's "Meet the Press" and laying out a blistering, detailed critique of the modern GOP.

Powell said the election of Obama would "electrify the world."

"I think he is a transformational figure," Powell said. "He is a new generation coming ... onto the world stage and on the American stage. And for that reason, I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama."

As a key reason, Powell said: "I would have difficult with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration."

Powell, once considered likely to be the nation's first African-American presidential nominee, said his decision was not about race.

Moderator Tom Brokaw said: "There will be some ... who will say this is an African-American, distinguished American supporting another African-American because of race."

Powell, who last year gave the Arizona senator's campaign the maximum $2,300, replied: "If I had only had that in mind, I could have done this six, eight, 10 months ago. I really have been going back and forth between somebody I have the highest respect and regard for, John McCain and somebody I was getting to know, Barack Obama. And it was only in the last couple of months that I settled on this."

"I can't deny that it will be a historic event when an African-American becomes president," Powell continued, speaking live in the studio. "And should that happen, all Americans should be proud — not just African-American, but all Americans — that we have reached this point in our national history where such a thing could happen. It would also not only electrify the country, but electrify the world."

Powell, making his 30th appearance on "Meet the Press," said he does not plan to campaign for Obama. He led into his endorsement by saying: "We've got two individuals — either one of them could be a good president. But which is the president that we need now — which is the individual that serves the needs of the nation for the next period of time.

"And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and you have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president."

Powell said that he is "troubled" by the direction of the Republican Party, and said he began to doubt Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) when he chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

"Not just small towns have values," he said, responding to one of Palin's signature lines.

"She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired," he said. "But at the same, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made."

The endorsement is likely to help Obama convince skeptical centrists that he is ready to handle the challenges of commander in chief, and undercuts McCain argument that he is better qualified on national-security issues.

McCain, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," sought to minimize the endorsement by noting his support from other former secretaries of state and retired military flag officers.

"It doesn’t come as a surprise," McCain said. "I'm very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state, well over 200 retired generals and admirals. I've admired and continue to respect Secretary Powell."

Powell, 71, criticized McCain and his campaign for invoking the former domestic terrorist William Ayers.

"They're trying to connect him to some kind of terrorist feelings, and I think that's inappropriate," Powell said. "Now I understand what politics is all about — I know how you can go after one another. And that's good. But I think this goes too far. And I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It's not what the American people are looking for. And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me. And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift."

Powell said he has "heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion [that Obama's] a Muslim and might be associated with terrorists."

"This is not the way we should be doing it in America. I feel strongly about this particular point," Powell said. "We have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as non-discriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that within the party, we have these kinds of expressions."

Powell, a four-star Army general, was national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, when George H.W. Bush was president; and was President George W. Bush’s first secretary of State.

Powell has consulted with both Obama and McCain, and the general’s camp had indicated in the past that he would not endorse.

Powell said that as he watched McCain, the Republican “was a little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we were having, and almost every day, there was a different approach to the problem, and that concerned me, sensing that he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had."

Powell said a big job of the new president will be “conveying a new image of American leadership, a new image of America’s role in the world.”

“I think what the president has to do is to start using the power of the Oval Office and the power of his personality to convince the American people and to convince the world that America is solid, America is going to move forward … restoring a sense of purpose,” he said.

Magnum

[Shotgun Styles]

Anthem will claim that it's "the Blacks" sticking together.

Truth is, everything Powell said is true, and he's one of the few people in politics with any universal credibility.

In so many words Powell said we need an intellectual in the White House. Powell is an intellectual and has seen up close what happens when a "regular Joe" becomes President. We don't need our drinking buddy in the Oval Office, we need a good decision maker.

Interestingly, Fox News tried to preempt Powell by producing an hour long hit piece on Obama called the "Ties that Bind". It's basically the McCain talking points in documentary format, focusing on Bill Ayers. Problem is true independent voters don't consider Fox News as a reliable news source, and polling bears this out.

[Tinysmasher]

Yes, but true independents also don't consider CNN/MSNBC/etc unbiased either Liberals who consider themselves independent blast Faux news but think the clinton news network is totally unbiased.

What powell said looks like to me is this: he doesn't like that mccain sold out to the far right to get elected. Which is one of my biggest complaints about him too, well that and he's so old we're likely to have his VP take over.

I'd have had few qualms about voting for McCain/Lieberman.

[Shotgun Styles]

Originally Posted by Tinysmasher

Yes, but true independents also don't consider CNN/MSNBC/etc unbiased either Liberals who consider themselves independent blast Faux news but think the clinton news network is totally unbiased.

What powell said looks like to me is this: he doesn't like that mccain sold out to the far right to get elected. Which is one of my biggest complaints about him too, well that and he's so old we're likely to have his VP take over.

I'd have had few qualms about voting for McCain/Lieberman.

Take them all with a grain of salt. MSNBC is clearly an advocacy news/propaganda machine in the Fox News mold. Kieth Olbemann is Bill O'Reilly. Having said that, you will not see an HOUR LONG documentary hit piece on any network against John McCain.

It's one thing to be in the tank for a candidate, something else entirely to sell your soul to the propaganda Gods. The other networks may not be fair, but Fox is the worst of the worst.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by Shotgun Styles

In so many words Powell said we need an intellectual in the White House. Powell is an intellectual and has seen up close what happens when a "regular Joe" becomes President. We don't need our drinking buddy in the Oval Office, we need a good decision maker.

Very true. One of the disastrous things that put Bush in the White House was the insane idea that somehow this isn't a demanding job. I think that Bill Clinton also contributed -- he was very smart, but as with Nixon, with "smart" came "tricky", and voters decided that they weren't fond of "tricky".

If there's one thing you can say in W's favor, its that no one need fear that he'll outsmart them.

I still have a lot of questions about Obama, but the one question that I don't have is: "Is he smart enough to do the job?" The other thing about Obama, that you see in Powell too, is that he's almost completely unemotional-- he's a logical, "cool" thinker.

I suspect that, like Clinton's, an Obama Presidency will be surprisingly conservative. Certainly whatever fears conservatives had of government intervention have already been swamped by this Administration-- there is no way, for example, that a Democrat could have seized the power for the Treasury that Paulson now has. . .

[treesmoke]

Part of the problem is that the conservatives have a rigid platform and it is hard to tell which parts of it should be taken seriously and which parts are unrealistic. That is where McCain is failing he is reaching to a base that doesn't like him and he doesn't understand.

No matter what President Obama or McCain does it will not be considered conservative. Some how the base has to like you first before you can be considered one of them. For instance Palin everyone, even babies who never had a job, $2300 doesn't seem to bother the hard right.

It is a very sad thing to see a major party in our country attack people for being smart. And some what successfully label Bill Clinton and Obama, two men that grew up in usually poor families elitist (and make the term elitist a bad word) it is bizarre to me.


I also think that the way the right defines the position of the left and the feelings of moderate america are greatly exaggerated toward there side. But it looks like we are going to find out in the near future.

[Harpoon]

Here are a few quotes that say alot to me by Mr. Powell..

"I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change"

Powell said McCain's choice of Palin raised "questions about judgment".

"She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired. But at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president," he said. "And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made."

[lost in melb.]

This is a great interview, and not just the bit about Obama.

[Warzen]

Originally Posted by Shotgun Styles

Take them all with a grain of salt. MSNBC is clearly an advocacy news/propaganda machine in the Fox News mold. Kieth Olbemann is Bill O'Reilly. Having said that, you will not see an HOUR LONG documentary hit piece on any network against John McCain.

Wow your absolutly positively right none of the media would ever put a hour long hit piece about Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain. They wouldnt be able to find enough stuff to fill a hour long hit piece about Republican Candidate John McCain unlike they are able to do against Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. So the liberal media instead goes after Republican Vice President Candidate Sarah Palin, Cindy McCain, the Palin Family, the McCain Family and anyone else but the Republican Presidential Candidate. But I must say I loved learning all about Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher aka "Joe the Plumber" on CNN. MSNBC, and all the rest of the liberal media. Now that is a dangerous man for asking a question to a politician.




You know here is a little history question for you. What would we have if they South had won the Civil War?

Answer: A Democratic Party controlled Goverment and Slavery.

So if Obama wins we will have the Democratic Party Controlled goverment.



The Republican Party was created in 1854 in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act that would have allowed the expansion of slavery into Kansas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...publican_Party

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine if they would allow slavery within their boundaries.

The act was designed by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas-Nebraska_Act

Abraham Lincoln Sixteenth President of the United States, First Republican President 1861-1865
Republican
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html

Jefferson Davis First President of the Confederate States of America 1861-1865
Democrate
http://www.nndb.com/people/336/000050186/

If you think slavery in the United States was a bad idea thank the Republican Party.
If you think slavery in the United States was a good idea tell the Democratic Party they should have fought as hard in the Civil War as they are fighting for the Obama Campaign now.

[lost in melb.]

They wouldnt be able to find enough stuff to fill a hour long hit piece about Republican Candidate John McCain unlike they are able to do against Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.

Is that what they are?

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by Warzen

If you think slavery in the United States was a bad idea thank the Republican Party.
If you think slavery in the United States was a good idea tell the Democratic Party they should have fought as hard in the Civil War as they are fighting for the Obama Campaign now.[/size]

The Republican Party of Karl Rove and George W. Bush bears no resemblance to the party of Lincoln; hell, it doesn't even bear any resemblance to the party of Eisenhower. Ike's son, John S.D. Eisenhower has said

Originally Posted by John S.D. Eisenhower

"The fact is that today's 'Republican' Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word 'Republican' has always been synonymous with the word 'responsibility,' which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms.

The Republican Party of 1860 was a Northern, liberal, anti-slavery Party. The states it won are the states we now call "Blue" states. The Democratic Party of 1860 was a Southern, conservative, pro-slavery party. The states that they won are now the "Red" states. The story of how Republicans and Democrats came to invert their geographic and political identities is complicated, but there are two big themes:
1) after the Civil War, the Republican party became the party of business interests
2) Starting with Roosevelt, but reaching a critical mass with LBJ, the Democratic party became the party representing black voting rights.

[Warzen]

Originally Posted by lost in melb.

Is that what they are?

Come on guys, get together get your fairy tales straight and get back to me.

Lost im assuming your from Australia since your listed as from Way Down Under and your handle is Lost in Melb so you must know how sheep react to things.








And as far as Colin Powell stands ...

In 1991, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, Powell became a national figure during the successful Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations which expelled the Iraqi army from Kuwait. General Powell continued as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the first months of the Clinton administration, publicly disagreeing with President Clinton over the President's plan to permit gay men and women to serve in the military. Powell retired from the military shortly thereafter and returned to private life.

In 1995 he announced that he had registered as a Republican.

In 2001, newly elected President George W. Bush appointed Colin Powell to be Secretary of State.




So this made me wonder why Mr. Powell would support Obama till this came out.

Obama: I Would Make Powell an Adviser in My Administration

Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama administration, the Democratic White House hopeful said Monday.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Barack Obama said on NBC's "Today" in an interview aired Monday, a day after Powell, a four-star general and President Bush's former secretary of state, endorsed him.


But hey I cant blame Colin Powell at all. He Gave a good speech sold out his beliefs and getting paid. Why can I picture Colin Powell doing the scene from "Jerry Maquire" as Cuba Gooding Jr. "SHOW ME THE MONEY".

[Harpoon]

Originally Posted by Warzen

But hey I cant blame Colin Powell at all. He Gave a good speech sold out his beliefs and getting paid. Why can I picture Colin Powell doing the scene from "Jerry Maquire" as Cuba Gooding Jr. "SHOW ME THE MONEY".

Nice... Hahaha..

[Warzen]

Originally Posted by deepsepia

The Republican Party of Karl Rove and George W. Bush bears no resemblance to the party of Lincoln; hell, it doesn't even bear any resemblance to the party of Eisenhower. Ike's son, John S.D. Eisenhower has said



The Republican Party of 1860 was a Northern, liberal, anti-slavery Party. The states it won are the states we now call "Blue" states. The Democratic Party of 1860 was a Southern, conservative, pro-slavery party. The states that they won are now the "Red" states

Your right the Republican Party has changed but the Democratic Party is still the same. If your different from us, or think different from us, or question us, then your wrong and we will do our best to destroy you. But let the Democrates and Liberal Media keep on attacking people like Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher for asking a question.

I grew up in the South Listening to the Hate, Racism, Genderism, and Belittling by older Democrates about anyone that didnt follow their beliefs. That is one of the reasons I favor the Republican Party today. The Democratic Party is still singing the same old song they have just changed the words.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by Warzen

Your right the Republican Party has changed but the Democratic Party is still the same.

No, actually, the Democratic Party isn't remotely "the same" as it was in 1860. The people who vote for it, and what they believe that they are voting for, bear little if any relationship to the 1860 voters.

Take a look at the States that voted Democratic in 1860. They were white southern men. Who do their descendants-- white southern men-- vote for today? There are a tiny number of old style Southern democrats, but they're like "Rockefeller Republicans", an endangered species (the only one I can think of still in office is Ike Skelton, D-Mo.)

Today's "Red State/Blue State" battle is remarkably similar to the battlelines of 1860, with the party names inverted-- George Bush won every single one of the states that the Democrats carried in 1860, but very few of the states that Lincoln did. Bush's party has only a nostalgic tie to the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower.

I can go even further: Bush's party doesn't even have much connection to his father's Republican party. Bush's Party might be properly called "the Copperhead Party"-- even some of the slimier rhetorical techniques are the same. Heard the one about Obama secretly being a Muslim? How about Lincoln being a Negro?