Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has announced that he will be voting for Sen. Barack Obama, citing the Democrat’s “ability to inspire” and the “inclusive nature of his campaign.”
“He has both style and substance. I think he is a transformational figure,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press…”
“I have voted for members of both parties in the course of my adult life. And as I said earlier, I will vote for the candidate I think can do the best job for America, whether that candidate is a Republican, a Democrat or an independent,” he added…
“I will ultimately vote for the person I believe brings to the American people the kind of vision the American people want to see for the next four years,” he said. “A vision that reaches out to the rest of the world, that starts to restore confidence in America, that starts to restore favorable ratings to America. Frankly, we’ve lost a lot in recent years.”
Not a surprise. Especially from a more traditional Republican than the sectarian crew in charge for the past 8 years.
Contempt,
Say it all you like, it won’t change the truth. Bush knew Iraq had removed and / or destroyed all its WMDs after Gulf I. Other Intelligence agencies knew that, including the CIA, MI6, the Russians, Germans, French, and Chinese. What is not understood is why Tony Blair went along with Bush to invade Iraq.
The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Contempt the Clown.
Paraphrasing Carl Sagan.
#61, Contempt,
#60 ROP
What did Paddy-O say that needs defending?
Just about everything.
#61–contempt==there many examples of “just” wars, or good wars, or wars that advance legitimate goals. WW2 probably being one of the best examples. It does become much more difficult to justify wars of choice that one initiates–so many other better choices available.
Sad we once were so powerful we could act alone. It rapidly developed from there that no one would act with us. Coalition building has drawbacks, but lots of positives too.
#62 Selvy
Just how far right are you? Describing Obama as being ‘far left’ is laughable. Lenin was far left. Mao was far left. Obama is in league with these guys? I hope your checking for commies under your bed before you sleep.
#62. sorry, but if you can harry and interfere with the inspectors – if they are absolutely useless, as you suppose – you don’t NEED to send the WMD to Syria. In fact, it is more dangerous, since once they are on the move, they can be spotted by US surveillance satellites and aircraft. so no logic points there.
not to mention the fact that, like the existence of WMD in the first place, there’s simply no proof. The Bush administration had every incentive to prove your scenario, but they have not.
“They certainly didn’t count on Iran getting such a foothold in Iraqi politics, nor that in the process they’d increase the reach of both Iran and its proxy Hezbollah.”
um, given that we were going to establish a democracy in Iraq, and that most of the population of Iraq were Shiites, whose leaders were very friendly to Iran, to not have predicted this is just retarded.
sorry, but it is.
here is the magical thinking that was involved: “We will free the Shiites and they will be SO grateful that they will hate the people we hate, i.e. Iran.” even though the Iranians are their co-religionists who sheltered their leaders during Saddam’s reign and didn’t sell them out when the US did.
that’s just stupid. this is not a matter of execution, as you suggest, this is the entire concept. Iraq without a Sunni tyrant is going to be friendly to Iran.
Saddam was very useful to the US (as he was during the Iran-Iraq War), if the US was interested in containing Iran, which apparently we were not. Under Reagan (remember that pic of Rummy with Saddam? right around the time he was gassing the Kurds, about which we said nada?) and Bush I we were, but not under the neocons.
“How can he cite Palin’s inexperience as a factor and then support Obama? Obama is running for president, Palin isn’t.”
the primary qualification of a VP is to be able to step in as Prez at a moment’s notice. anyone who watched Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric should have felt mortal terror at the prospect of her becoming POTUS. Obama may be inexperienced, but he is goddamn smart, that’s for sure. Palin is the second coming of Dan Quayle.
#64 – “Just about everything.” or “Just about, everything.”
Colin Powel for Prez! I dont care what party!
#62, Selvy
And most of the intelligence agencies were warning that he had WMD capability or was coming very close to it, including the French intelligence services.
And would you have any citations to back that up?
Jager, I liked the “fixing Daddy’s mistake” allusion. The neo-cons just had to get it off their chest, didn’t they?
contempt, get over the silly arguments – if they hadn’t used the WMD argument they would have used something else. The Bush coalition was about everyone getting what they wanted:
Evangelicals: got their supreme court
Neo-cons: got an army to play with
The privileged rich: got free government money
Principled conservatives (and there aren’t too many left) are sick about the Republican party and George Bush and are appalled at the idea of nation building or pushing democracy at the point of a gun. They can only hope that 30 years or semi-Republican rule have pushed the US to the right enough to make them happy.
It’s up to Obama to bring a new vision of America that will draw people back. Aging liberals like Pelosi and Reid have to go and make way for a new generation. Kennedy understood that, you’d think the rest would “get it” too.
> Mr. Fusion said, on October 19th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
>>>> #62, Selvy
>>>> And most of the intelligence agencies were warning that he had WMD capability or was coming very close to it, including the French intelligence services.
> And would you have any citations to back that up?
Sean Hannity
Rush Limbaugh
Fox News
and, amazingly, the
New York Times!
There aren’t many in the Bush Administration that I feel sorry for but Colin Powell may be one.
It sure seems like the Bushies used and ruined him, knowing damn well what they were doing.
#72. “and, amazingly, the
New York Times!”
Judy Miller – Ms. Credulous, 2003.
For a supposedly liberal propaganda organ, the NYT sure pimped the Bushies’ war. and (more recently) gave above-the-fold, page one coverage to Ayers.
but pay that no nevermind – because the paper looks into Cindy McCain’s history with Sen. McNasty, the NYT is in the Dems’ pocket …
>> doug said, on October 19th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
>> For a supposedly liberal propaganda organ, the NYT sure pimped the Bushies’ war. and (more recently) gave above-the-fold, page one coverage to Ayers.
And it wasn’t just the NYT’s — virtually all of the media was essentially a stenographer for Whitehouse.
Even so, you still hear conservatives complain about the “far left MSM”
It’s quite a detachment from reality.
McCain got an endorsement from a hispanic soap opera star. Sure that’s not Colin Powell but he will take it.
Despite the good numbers for this blog, I’ll be glad when the election is over.
The fact that Powell thinks McCain is more to the right of Bush makes me wonder about his judgment. I guess he thinks less torture and shutting down Gitmo is worse than Bush, WiTF. As for questioning Palin’s experience maybe he should be looking at Obama’s experience too. I just wonder how much Obama paid him.
As for being a great general, BS, he derailed Bush #1 into not finishing the Iraq problem the first time.
#78 John, I enjoy your election blogs. It’s a study of the republican voter mind. It’s like animal planet – fascinating.
When the elections are over, December will start the usual 4 year effort (hopefully 8) to have Obama impeached. My guess it will not be as much fun or entertaining. 🙁
Nov 5, 2008
Obama 41%
McCain 39%
Barr 9%
Other 11%
As neither candidate had the required 50%+ number of votes, the House of Representatives had to immediately vote on which of the three top contenders would be president. “Immediately” ended up being three weeks while speeches were made, deals were brokered, lawsuits filed, lawsuits dismissed, etc. In the end, Obama became President.
However, the Democratic party did not rejoice. And neither did the Republican party. Both lost over 3/4 of the seats open to election to various third party candidates in the Senate and House. This left neither party with a majority.
Obama, feeling the heat from the economy meltdown which started anew Nov 5th, was unable to get a single government program brought to his desk for signing into law.
After eight months of both the Democrats and Republicans fighting each other, they decided to take out their frustrations on the, recently named, Independents. However, every Independent was living up their campaign promises — no new taxes, no new spending. The press sided with both of the former major parties however the voters continued to support the Independents. When the new budget was up for debate, the government had no choice but to reduce over 30% of all government spending — an ironic amount as that was also about how much the dollar had dropped on the world-wide markets. By this time, the Fed had lost all control of their monetary policy and the Treasury took back that control out of desperation. It was too little, too late.
The elections of 2010 were the final nail in the coffin for the Democrats and Republicans. The voters saw the mess they brought the country to by refusing the cooperate with the Independents. Every Democrat and Republican up for re-election, save two, were elected out of office and replaced with other Independents.
By now, it is apparent the nation is turning its back on the former major parties. In a last act of defiance, they combine their platforms and form a single party. The infighting persists to this day.
Obama, wanting to be re-elected in 2012 switches parties to the Independents. The former Democrats call him a traitor and the former Republicans, a snake-oil salesman.
…and if powell had endorsed mccain, every single conservative on this list would be crowing about what a great and eloquent warrior gen. colin powell is.
it shows that conservatives will turn on their own kind the send one break ranks.
notice that conservatives never say anything good about themselves, the only say bad things about people who disagree with or even question conservativism
i don’t think conservatives like themselves very much.
Fanny May and Freddy Mac ended up in the ditch in large part because they wanted them to make loans to people that were bad loan risks.
Wrong. That is the current line from the Republicans trying to pin the blame on Clinton. The two mortgage giants got into trouble by buying “toxic” mortgages from less than scrupulous brokers. They were making money by flipping these “securities” back and forth. As long as the foreclosure rate remained at a certain level they could leverage these loans over 100 times. Only when Bush’s economy started tanking and people couldn’t afford to pay their mortgages in certain areas, did they run into trouble.
http://tinyurl.com/6drazb
It seems Freddie Mac had a strong hand in killing any new regulation.
And this is something the msm is picking up, amazingly enough.
# 78 John C Dvorak said:
“Despite the good numbers for this blog, I’ll be glad when the election is over.”
Already? The primaries only started two years ago.
Hasn’t anybody noticed that Joe the Plumber has given more press conferences in the five days that he’s been on the ticket than Palin has given in the two months she’s been McCain’s playmate?
#86, Loser,
That legislation was opposed by Democrats because it would have moved oversight from the FED to Treasury.
From your link,
That entered politics into the equation as poorer people tend not to vote for Republicans. To date, there has been no evidence that low income families have defaulted at a higher rate than any other income level. Removing their line of credit though would have given even higher amounts of credit to higher income groups at their expense.
#89, Flip,
Joe the Plumber gave more live interviews on the day after the debate than Palin has since she joined the ticket.
Over on the green football they have all decided that even though Powell gave several reasons for supporting Obama none of those matter and he’s a racist and only supporting Obama because he’s black. So according to their logic if you support someone I don’t like it is because you are a racist? Hmmm…. I wonder what that says about those calling Powell racist?
#90, You proved my point. Thanks.
meanwhile, back on the thread about colin powell…
conservatives are having a tough time changing the subject.
attempts to steer the conversation toward senator obama’s gift certificate are predictably pathetic.
attempts to waylay discussion of general powell’s political acumen and judgment by bringing up freddie mac and fannie mae are as transparent as celophane.
conservatives are going to have work harder to dish out dirt, because they have nothing positive to say about themselves. their tired tricks of changing the subject when painted into a corner are too well-known at this point to have any impact.
#60 “I like how contempt didn’t try to defend Paddy-O Furniture. ”
What ARE you babbling about? What institution let you loose?
on a related note…
joe the plumber has nothing to do with general powell.
more on this story as conservatives writhe in agony, desperate to find any kind of mud that will stick to the obama juggernaut, having long since gave up on finding anything positive to say about john mccain or sarah palin.
c’mon paddy, et al,
tell me how colin powell is a soy-latte-sipping-liberal-pinko-commie, just like everyone who supports obama.
tell me how he lacks integrity.
tell me how he’s soft on crime, terrorism, etc.
tell me how his military experience is overrated and unimportant.
tell me how both bushes were wrong about him.
tell me how his eloquence is actually a bad thing.
come on, that’s what you conservatives do — tear down anyone who opposes you.
man, you guys are so predictable, no wonder your guy is losing.