Powell joined “CBS This Morning” on Thursday and with 12 days to go before the presidential election publicly endorsed President Obama for reelection for the first time.
“I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012 and I’ll be voting for he and Vice President Joe Biden next month…”
“When he took over the country was in very, very difficult straits. We were in the one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression. The fiscal system was collapsing. Wall Street was in chaos, we had 800,000 jobs lost in that first month of the Obama Administration and unemployment peaked at 10 percent. So we were in real trouble. The auto industry was collapsing, the housing was started to collapse and we were in very difficult straits. And I saw over the next several years stabilization come back in the financial community, housing is now starting to come back after four years, it’s starting to pick up. Consumer confidence is rising.”
Summarizing the past four years under Obama, Powell said “Generally, we’ve come out of the dive and we’re starting to gain altitude.” He added, “The unemployment rate is too high, people are still hurting in housing but I see that we’re starting to raise up.”
Turning to foreign policy, Powell said he saw “the president got us out of one war, start to get us out of a second war and did not get us into any new wars. And finally I think that the actions he has taken with respect to protecting us from terrorism have been very very solid. And so, I think we ought to keep on the track that we are on.”
Speaking to Mitt Romney’s foreign policy views, Powell expressed his concern about Romney’s changing positions on international affairs. “The governor who was saying things at the debate on Monday night was saying things that were quite different from what he said earlier,” referring to Romney’s performance at the foreign policy debate earlier in the week. “I’m not quite sure which Gov. Romney we would be getting with respect to foreign policy,” he added…
And, despite his endorsement of a Democratic candidate in two presidential elections, Powell says he remains a Republican. “I think I’m a Republican of a more moderate mold,” he said before adding, “That’s something of a dying breed I’m sorry to say.”
The number of folks who still call themselves Republicans – and are willing to support the whole nation struggling to get out from under this Great Recession – continues to shrink. Still – it’s nice to hear positive support from one of the leading voices remaining on that side of the aisle.
Colin Powell is a good man but he is hardly a “leading voice” from the Republican side. I really can’t see why this endorsement is significant. After all, he endorsed Obama four years ago and has not been politically active.
I agree the Republicans consider him ‘dirty’ because he, gulp, didn’t stay with the herd.
Colin Powell is just endorsing Obama because he’s black… just like Trump is just endorsing Romney because he’s an effing loon.
You have to stick together with the ones that will make you the most money. Politics is all about the money. The people supporting based on principle are the ones being screwed, only support based on being paid.
trump endorses romney cause he’s an effing business loon. if trump wanted to endorse a full on effing loon he woulda’ backed ron paul
Obama needs that to wash away the stink of getting endorsements from Putin, Chavez, Castro. Russell Crowe was nice but this is better.
Meanwhile, Romney got endorsements from Tampa Bay Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Detroit News, and Columbus Dispatch. At least 3 of those have regularly endorsed Democrats. Milwaukee just took a pass and did not endorse after endorsing Obama before. Des Moines Register is breaking its rules to endorse Obama, letting him give an off the record interview before they endorse. By their rules, it should have been Romney only.
Does this mean Colin Powell worked against Bill Clinton for 3 elections? Already liberals are looking to pin a loss on Bill Clinton. The logic still confuses me, but it’s right there in the New York Times.
Powell wasn’t offered a job by Romney. Hoping he will do better in an Obama 2nd term??
And so the Republican party continues shrinking…
Soon it will be only the billionaires and the voting machine hackers. But that will be enough to stay in power.
Eideard snuck a good one in here: “The number of folks who still call themselves Republicans – and are willing to support the whole nation struggling to get out from under this Great Recession – continues to shrink.” //// whole nation. Get it class warriors?
Good recognition. Too subtle though given half the voters are completely committed to cutting their own throats.
How long can the Party Formerly known as the Republicans hold on to that Label as they practice the American brand of Taliban? Same views with only slightly less support.
To be a bit more accurate, Eideard didn’t really ‘sneak’ anything in. His anti-Republican bias has been well established by his prior posts. It would have been ‘sneakier’ if he/she had a less obvious agenda.
I am not sure what gives you or others the idea that the Republican Party has no support or declining support. I understand that you don’t agree with some (if not all of their policies). Is this merely rhetoric or is there something indicating declining party membership?
I SAID the pukes had the support of HALF the voters.
The puke party is systematically purging itself of MODERATE Republicans, THEY are becoming less in numbers replaced by neo-cons, teabags, religious fundamentalists, wingnuts, and various bought stooges of the Super Rich.
Hopefully, you normally read more closely?
Actually you said “half the voters are completely committed to cutting their own throats”, which did not speak directly to the membership of the respective parties. I take it then that your statement about the decline of the Republican Party is more rhetorical than empirical. That is perfectly fine, each party occasionally predicts the demise of the opposing party.
Of course it does.
You keep mis-equating (sic) HALF as either deminimus or declining. It is instead HALF and STABLE. It is not demising, its morphing.
With less hope, you normally read more closely?
No, he said HAD half, not that they still do. Plus they are losing moderates, and apparently gaining back as many as they lose from Democrats and Independents, who have been bought.
RE: bobbo
Reading closely does not seem to be my problem in this instance. I would simply remind you that one need only “see above” in this comment stream.
I was merely seeking the basis of one of your comments that I have seen elsewhere on this site. I sought to clarify not to attack. Since you chose to reply at a 3rd grade level of maturity, I see no purpose in further discussion with you.
RE: MikeN
Please see previous comments in this stream. I wasn’t discussing current, past or future numbers of party support. I was questioning the source of the notion that Republican Party membership was declining. Your response(and bobbo’s) seems to address party support rather than membership. It also appears speculative. Is there any basis for the notion of declining Republican Party membership?
Yes there is. Republican and Democratic Party membership is down in Florida, Virginia, Ohio. This was spun as good news for Republicans because Democrats dropped much more.
Thanks Mike. I’ll check it out.
Having an argument with bobbo is like arguing with a hysterical 4 year old. Lots of squealing and childish name calling but you won’t get a grown up argument out of it.
Oh yeah?
Yes, the more extremist the Republican Party becomes, the less general support they get.
Romney is a good example: He has to constantly lie to appease the crazy party faithful that brook no dissent and at the same time not scare off the moderate voter.
Its a hard act to pull off. Fortunately for him the American attention span is very short.
But isn’t it also true that as a result of the primary system that each party’s candidates tend to court their more politically extreme membership early in the campaign and then move towards the political middle for the general election?
As a general rule, I would accept than the more extreme any political party gets the less popular support they can draw on.
If Powell had run for President, he would have my vote!
Anyone that supports Obama needs to live in Illinois.
Under the One-Party (a combo of Dems and Repubs), there is no pretense of representing anyone but the status-quo of the Richard Daley/Jim Thompson machine.
Obama is from this spunk and nothing more.
California and Illinois have big cities and are generally a magnet for talent. Why are they going bankrupt?
They haven’t figured out you can’t tax your way into prosperity while you foster an environment for companies and people to leave.
The state of Texas greatly thanks California for assisting them in creating “Silicon Valley 2.o” by repelling said talent.
Powell’s mad that Dave Chapelle called him white.
One word from Powell, and the whole Valerie Plame case would have ended in days rather than years. He knew it was his own aide who leaked and not Scooter Libby.
Powell is an honorable man. He was a general before he was a politico.
He’s endorsing Obama, because he understands that you can disagree without being disagreeable.
He also supports less government in our lives and the lives of people in the 100+ countries we have troops within.
Israel they did not send one soldier to Iraq or Af/Pak. He knows supporting the Zionist is full on fraud of the American People.
Let Israel defend itself. Check out the old testament, Jews can’t get along with anyone. If your a Christian you likely hear a scripture reading (as I do each week) about the poor persecuted Jews.
Hey Israel, give me back my taxes you thieving, oil free, whores for handouts. Israel got 60 minutes of debate time? Why? Goldman Saks.
Israel didn’t send troops because they weren’t asked. The whole coalition breaks up if you send the Jews!
So you are for providing US taxpayer money to support Israel? 3 Billion a month? Why? They are one of the richest countries in the world.
They should give us aid. When was the last time Israel handed out foreign aid to the US?
Where do you get this $3 billion a month number? Most aid to Israel is then sent back to the US in weapons purchases, so it more corporate welfare. And to answer your question, I am against aid to Israel. Netanyahu is also against it, to the point where liberal groups were going around arguing that that wasn’t what he meant.
Just like payments to healthcare companies (hospital and doctors) via Medicare, Medicad, Obamacare is employement welfare. Better spent here on US than Af/Pak.
Why not spend the money helping our people build themselves up?
Weapons production is always a net negative to the economy.
Each unused weapon is just buried tax payer money, no upside. Bombs produce nothing. In fact all the infrastructure we have repaired in the world since the Marshall Plan was mostly destroyed by our tax money.
Talk about welfare.
At least you uncovered the defense industry’s racket of pushing Congress for “aid’ to both Israel and Egypt in order to keep the sales department happy.
So, you still agree with Willard that the government doesn’t create jobs? Define “create”.
It’s called voting your skin color. This is the first “black” president. Most blacks desperately want to support him. This is normal human behavior. The problem is if you care anything about blacks this dude needs to kicked out of office because he has almost eliminated the black middle class during his term.
Suure, 30 years of policies that hurt the middle class, plus an economic failure that occurred before he was elected…
Thats *some* time machine Obama has.
Fck it, if he’s with Obama I’m in as well. Can’t go wrong with Powell I say 😀
I haven’t seen this type of endorsement of a losing campaign since Kemp endorsed Steve Forbes. He ended up as VP nominee for Dole. What does Colin Powell get? Is he the frontrunner for Dems in 2016?
>I’d rather party affiliations be removed on all voting ballots.
There was a city that did that, and the Obama Administration sued, as a violation of the Voting Rights Act, because it hurts the ability of blacks to vote Democratic.
I thought he was much more intelligent than this.
Powell lost all credibility 4 years ago the first time he endorsed Barry. He’s an intelligent man, so I don’t understand what’s behind his endorsements. It’s painfully obvious to anyone with brainwaves that *anyone* is better than Obama, especially after he’s had 4 years to prove it. Hell, Charlie Manson should beat Barry by 20 points. A pail of brown liquid should beat him by 10.
A vote against a Democrat is a vote for progress.