quote:

Originally posted by Renegade http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...orses-obama/?hp

How quickly we forgot who he chose as his past employer.

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Originally posted by DJ Shibby How quickly we forgot who he chose as his past employer.

yeah - because if he turned down being secretary of state for the US his offer from canada was still open.

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Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov He argued against the war behind closed doors, and only went to the UN under a direct order by his President.

How did you get access to those meetings man? Anyway I agree with Magnetonium... it's just political expediency for Powell; it's obvious he is just positioning himself to get a position in Obama's cabinet. What is this "he had to study the candidates and their issues before making an agonizing decision" business? I can understand if Obama just arrived from another planet, but it's not like he wasn't aware of his policies or McCains' till now. Powell is just another Washington insider at this point and his endorsement isn't going to change any votes. The timing was purposeful because Obama is being hurt now with all these things that we have learned about him. It would have been much easier to endorse Obama before all this garbage came out, when he was the untouchable messiah. But here comes the endorsement right before the election after we've learned all the dirty laundry about Obama? Even that black democrat Juan Williams admits what it was really about. If Powell had endorsed McCain, you know what would have happened? Donna Brazile and the other black elites in the Democrat Party would never have forgiven him.

Powell was bad after the United Nations. Now Powell is good. He broke with the Bush administration over affirmative action too. Massive campaign spending was corrupt, but now since Obama's doing it, it's just fine. Voter fraud was anti-civil rights. Now voter fraud is pro-civil rights. Experience doesn't matter in Obama's case, but it's now the reason why Governor Palin isn't qualified to be president, and so on. In 1995 when he was entertaining running for president, he wouldn't say what party he was representing because his approvals were in the 70's and he knew if his numbers would shrink of he went in a certain direction. Powell owes his name and his ascension to various heights to Republicans. I guess that's not so important anymore.

I don't understand why the Republican party is giving this election away.

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Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

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Originally posted by Clovis I don't understand why the Republican party is giving this election away.

Maybe they plan to nuke New York before Bush is out of office.

Obviously because he's black.

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Originally posted by Magnetonium Interesting. Well, dont you guys think it was in Powell's interests to go fight the war in Iraq because it would finance the military industrial complex, which is Powell part of (Pentagon, US military). Other than that, you guys have good points.

HAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHA

fuck.

haaaaaaaaa

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

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Originally posted by The17sss How did you get access to those meetings man?

I worked for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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Originally posted by Kinezi Admitting a mistake does not make someone undo the mistake he made, people punish to set examples for other people in future. All these people needs to punished to set an example for future generations. Orr bullshit like this will keep on going, Iraq now, Iran later... Syria.. Lebanon, Palestine..

Not that I'm all aginst public execution of politicians or anything, but do you genuinely believe that some sort of progress will come of this? That capital punishment establishes some sort of lesson or precedence for future generations? That people, as a whole, learn from the mistakes of the past?

___________________
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On Not that I'm all aginst public execution of politicians or anything, but do you genuinely believe that some sort of progress will come of this? That capital punishment establishes some sort of lesson or precedence for future generations? That people, as a whole, learn from the mistakes of the past?

It worked in Somalia! And Sudan! And the Central African Republic! And Soviet Russia!

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Hendrik Hertzberg:

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Endorsement Endorphin Is there a living American whose endorsement would have meant more to the candidacy of Barack Obama than Colin Powell’s? I’m not asking rhetorically. I’d really like to know. Nancy Reagan? Bush the Elder? Henry Kissinger? How about a revered sports figure? There aren’t too many of those any more in this growth-hormone era. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh? Michael Jordan? Bobby Orr? Tiger Woods? (Or would he just be Powell without the substance?) O.K., some icon of popular culture? Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennet, Stevie Wonder, Oprah Winfrey? (No, Obama’s got them already.) Clint Eastwood? Dolly Parton? Or a twofer like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Rush Limbaugh, I’m thinking. That would be a real Fat Man Bites Rabid Dog story. But no. The big guy’s negatives are way too high. (And even if you expand the field to include the six billion people who aren’t Americans, you’re hard put. The Dalai Lama? Pope Benedict XVI? Anyone?) It wasn’t just the “who” of Powell’s endorsement, i.e., a résumé that includes service as Reagan’s National Security Adviser, Bush the Elder’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Bush the Younger’s Secretary of State and a history of loyal Republicanism from the Nixon years until, literally, yesterday. (Powell, the most famous black Republican since Frederick Douglass, maxed out as a McCain contributor during the current electoral cycle and was mentioned as a possible running mate.) It was the force and focus of what he said. Powell’s presentation on “Meet the Press” had the casualness of an interview but the structure and pointedness of an argument crafted into a speech. He began by laying out the issues he regards as important: the global economy; Iraq and Afghanistan; the need for better relations with allies and for being “willing to talk to people who we have not been willing to talk to before”; the need for leadership on energy, global warming, and the environment; the plight of the poorest countries, which he linked to the problem of terrorism. Only then did he turn to his choice for President, making it explicit only after expressing his affection for McCain. He said that the financial crisis had constituted a kind of “final exam” for the two candidates, one that Obama had passed and McCain had failed. He cited McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as having “raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Senator McCain made.” He praised the contrasting “steadiness” and “intellectual vigor” of Obama, adding: quote: On the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He’s crossing lines—ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He’s thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values. General Powell—who is from a small town called the Bronx—then offered a devastating, definitive critique of what he called “this Bill Ayers situation”: quote: Why do we have these robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted? What they’re trying to do is connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s inappropriate. The emotional climax of Powell’s argument came next. It turned on the death of a twenty-year-old Muslim American soldier, and it happens to have been prompted by the magazine I work for, so I can’t help feeling some institutional pride. And his conclusion: quote: So, when I look at all of this and I think back to my Army career, 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 we 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. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world, onto the world stage, onto the American stage. And for that reason I’ll be voting for Senator Barack Obama. All of it said calmly and gravely, without a single hesitation, and without notes—a stunning performance. Notwithstanding the conventional platitudes about how endorsements don’t really matter, this one does. The McCain campaign’s tactics (it doesn’t have a strategy, and it doesn’t seem to know the difference) have been left in tatters. So much for Obama’s “associations.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blo...sement-end.html

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quote:

Originally posted by Nostalgic Obviously because he's black.

Well said. My BFF Lebezniatnikov will love this post (my bet is he doesn't even really read it because it's Limbaugh's words). At least he has the stones to say what nobody on the Democrat side has the courage to admit about Powell. Enjoy:

[In reference to Joe The Plumber] Now, who the hell are the Obama campaign to be investigating a private citizen? He is not part of the McCain campaign. He has had no relationship with John McCain over the years. John McCain never heard of Joe the Plumber 'til Joe the Plumber asked the question of Barack Obama. Now, there are some very questionable people in Barack Obama's past that the media will not investigate, will not look into, will not tell us anything about, but yet they haven't found anything substantive on Joe the Plumber. So you have media propaganda and investigations to help one party. Who the hell are they to be investigating a private citizen? That is an indictment of the Obama campaign and what it is and what it portends. They haven't found anything substantive on Joe the Plumber... yet. But it won't stop 'em if they find nothing from maybe making something up, will it?

What is happening to us? What is happening to our political system here? Average citizens targeted by a presidential campaign, and this average citizen asked a question, made a fool and a buffoon out of the candidate by making the candidate open up and be honest about what he really plans to do. And now we've got Biden out there taking this campaign to the last place the Obama campaign wants it to be. Maybe General Powell, you out there, Secretary Powell, you listening? Maybe now that you've heard what Senator Biden said, that Obama is going to guarantee us a major crisis because he will be tested, McCain would not be tested, they know McCain, Biden in effect said this, perhaps, General Powell, you can explain again why you support Obama and Biden. Not only is Biden a dunce, but he has been wrong on every foreign policy question of the last decade.

General Powell, are you prepared to go out and campaign? I know you said you weren't going to campaign. Are you prepared now to try to clean up this mess by telling us how qualified Obama is to deal with this test that's coming? By the way, General Powell, in a number of other things that he said about endorsing Obama, he said the Republican Party's getting too narrow. Did you catch that? He said the Republican Party is getting too narrow. Now, I'm beginning to wonder about Secretary Powell's powers of perception. That means the Republican Party's nothing but a bunch of right-wing extremists that he doesn't like. He doesn't like people that are against affirmative action, apparently. He doesn't like people who are pro-life, apparently. The Republican Party's getting too narrow? How many monologues have I given saying that with McCain the Republican tent's too damn big? The Republican Party, Secretary Powell, has been out trying to attract people like you!

The Republican Party, General Powell, has been trying to throw people like me out of it. The Republican Party, with Senator McCain, has been trying to get independents, trying to get moderates, people like you. We have been trying to get independents and moderates and Democrats, by the way, to come into our party as Democrats, not conservatives. We've been trying to get independents to come into our party as independents, which means Democrats, not as Republicans. That's what the McCain campaign is all about; that's what the McCain nomination was all about. General Powell, for you to say that you don't support McCain because the Republican Party is getting too narrow is a dead giveaway, sir. That's the last thing anybody would say about John "Amnesty" McCain. When you go down the list of McCain's Democrat positions, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, to say that McCain's campaign is narrow because of Sarah Palin? And of course Tom Brokaw wasn't going to call him on any of these things. He wasn't going to call him on the surge or anything of the sort.

Yeah, the party has moved too far right. Look here: "Schwarzenegger to Campaign for McCain in Ohio." Schwarzenegger! He's not exactly your pro-life, anti-affirmative action hick hayseed going to NASCAR races, General Powell. Isn't this, by the way, the Colin Powell who was first appointed to a big job by Mr. Conservative, Ronald Reagan? Wasn't it Ronald Reagan who pinned the four stars on General Powell? It was, ladies and gentlemen. And wasn't it George H. W. Bush who named him chairman of the Joint Chiefs, another Republican? And wasn't it George W. Bush who named him secretary of state? Yes, another Republican. By tomorrow this time, the political impact of the Powell endorsement will be mostly irrelevant, but his betrayal will be forever. And you people in the media who have been out there claiming that my disagreeing when Powell says his endorsement of Obama is not about race, and I say, yes, it is, it's totally about race, is a transformational figure, what else is transformational about Obama if not his race?

Everybody knows that Democrats in the media think history is being made here. What's so hard to admit you're supporting a guy because of race? And they're trying to tell me that I'm being racist and that 'm accusing Secretary Powell of being a racist. I'm not accusing him of being a racist. The Democrats have gotten away with defining our language or redefining our language for far too long. You bring up William Ayers, you are mean-spirited. You bring up Wright, you're a racist, and now you say that General Powell's endorsement of Obama is because of race? "You can't say that, who do you think you are? Who does Limbaugh think he is?" Let me tell you a little story. A friend of mine has a daughter in a high school. Yesterday, the daughter shows up, it's a history class, a constitutional history class or some such thing. She's a senior in high school, shows up, and the teacher starts lambasting me to these seniors in high school. "Did you hear what Rush Limbaugh said about Colin Powell? Can you believe Rush Limbaugh's a racist? Rush Limbaugh is as racist as anybody I ever -- I can't believe that Rush Limbaugh would say that about Colin Powell, that's horribly racist," and apparently there are a lot of black students, and the teacher is asking, "What do you think of Limbaugh? Do you think he's racist?" All their hands go up.

So what you have here is electioneering going on in a high school history class, citing what I said. These kids are 18, some of them are 18, they can vote. So you've got this teacher who's electioneering. What I said, my simple quotes to Jonathan Martin. "Jonathan, he says it's not about race. Okay. I'm going to search all the inexperienced white liberals that he's endorsed. I'll get back to you with what I find." Not only is that not racist, it's brilliant, if I say so myself, because it expresses it in a number of ways. What I'm saying is, well, this is interesting. He says it's not about race, but where all the inexperienced while liberals? Of course it's about race. And then when I said -- now, nobody brings this one up -- but he said he couldn't deal with two more Republican appointments to the Supreme Court. I said, "I didn't know he disliked John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia." I guess he also doesn't like the fact that it was Republicans that made him who he is. This is betrayal.

What General Powell did is betrayal, and of course he's gonna say it's not about race, but if Biden were the nominee you think he'd be endorsing Biden? Do you think he would endorse Hillary? It's possible. I'll tell you why. Because in addition to the race factor here, what's most important to Colin Powell is Colin Powell. And that means what's most important to Colin Powell is his standing in the New York-Washington elite corridors of power, and he has been on thin ice since the Iraq war and since he went up there to the United Nations and made the case for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. So this gets him back in good graces, this gets him back in good stead. In addition, do you think General Powell knew that Scooter Libby had not leaked anything, that his own assistant, Richard Armitage did? And do you think that General Powell might have just sat on the sidelines during the Scooter Libby investigation as a way of getting back at the Bush administration because he thinks they embarrassed him by sending him up there to make that statement, which so threatened his relationship with the people he most covets, the New York-Washington power elite? So with the endorsement of Obama, takes care of that. Look at what he had to look past, by the way, too.

Claudia Rosett, National Review Online, big, important piece. He had to ignore the United Nations oil-for-food program in making this endorsement, a number of other things. It's clear that General Powell is looking out for General Powell, which a lot of people do.

But to say that my saying that he's choosing to endorse Obama is racist, I never said that. I said he's making the choice based on race and a number of other things. Plus now the Republican Party's moved too far to the right. How does that strike you, you conservatives who think the Republican Party is trying to do everything it can to disavow conservatives running the party. So, by this time tomorrow, the political impact of the Powell endorsement will be mostly irrelevant, but his betrayal will be forever. And I would still love to hear what General Powell has to say about what Biden said. Maybe he can explain again why he supports Obama and Biden after what Biden said.

Just one more stab at this, folks, this Colin Powell business. It's not about racism. It's about his lack of candor. He can't admit what's obvious. Race plays a huge role. The whole campaign is about race. It's "historic." Why is it historic? There's only one thing that makes it historic, and that's the race of the Democrat nominee. It's certainly not his issues, not his policies. He's not The Messiah. He didn't come from a virgin birth. There's nothing out there that makes this historic other than that. Why can't you Democrats acknowledge this? What's so hard about it? Just say it! Be proud of it! It would have been refreshing if Secretary Powell had stated the obvious, not danced around it. But, see, if he'd admitted it was about race it wouldn't have helped him with the media. So... You know, in all these things you gotta take 'em into account.