Colin Powell endorses Obama for a second term

And the endorsements just keep rollin' in....

By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News


TAMPA, Fla.—Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican who served under George W. Bush, declared his support for a second term of President Barack Obama.

"I voted for him in 2008, and I plan to stick with him in 2012," Powell said Thursday during an interview with CBS's "This Morning." "I'll be voting for he and for Vice President Joe Biden next month."

Powell said he believed Obama's economic policies were helpful in turning around the sluggish economy and he criticized Republican challenger Mitt Romney's stance on foreign policy.

"I think we ought to keep on the track that we are on," Powell said.

In the interview, Powell insisted he was still a Republican, but "of a more moderate mold." He surprised many within the party in 2008 by choosing Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain.

Limbaugh & Cheney v. Powell

Today on MSNBC, anchor Contessa Brewer pointed out that Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney, rather than attacking Colin Powell - or as Brewer put it "two guys who have multiple draft deferments are going after a four-star general" - should use their influence and considerable stature within the Republican Party to champion substantive ideas - DemRapidResponse

Quote of the Day

"Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh? Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"

-- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview on CNN, on the problems of the Republican party.

Political Wire

Moved by a Crescent

Maureen Dowd of the NY Times wrote a great column yesterday about what motivated Colin Powell to endorse Barack Obama Sunday on Meet the Press. She writes about Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, the 20 year old Muslim US soldier from Manahawkin NJ, who was killed in Iraq:

"Colin Powell had been bugged by many things in his party’s campaign this fall: the insidious merging of rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim with intimations that he was a terrorist sympathizer; the assertion that Sarah Palin was ready to be president; the uniformed sheriff who introduced Governor Palin by sneering about Barack Hussein Obama; the scorn with which Republicans spit out the words “community organizer”; the Republicans’ argument that using taxes to “spread the wealth” was socialist when the purpose of taxes is to spread the wealth; Palin’s insidious notion that small towns in states that went for W. were “the real America.”

But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards — the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star — and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith..."

Morning Joe Gets Schooled by Zbigniew Brzezinski on Powell/Obama Endorsement

Just call him “Zbig the Scar Slayer.” Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski just destroyed Joe Scarborough on his own show and left him speechless and lying bloody on the ground. Scarborough had been ranting and raving for most of the previous segment with Pat Buchanan, belittling the Powell endorsement because of the Iraq War of all things and beating up Obama’s Press guy, Robert Gibbs (again) ad nauseum about how Obama had lied and broken his word on public financing and how they were buying the election and how Sarah Palin with all her years as Mayor of Wasilla (please!) and Governor was more qualified to be President than Barack Obama and he was nothing more than a Community Organizer, and a State legislator with one year in the Senate and blah, blah, blah.

A few minutes before they went to the break, Mika announced that Lawrence O’Donnell had arrived in the studio, so that was a good sign. But when I saw the 80 year-old Dr. Brzezinski pull himself up onto that stage, I knew Joe was in for all he could handle and more. Of course I wasn’t disappointed. When Joe was stupid enough to ask about the lack of experience of Barack Obama, Brzezinski countered beautifully, making the intellectual argument for Barack Obama sound like lyric poetry. He made the case for Barack’s intellect, temperament and good judgment over the unpredictable volatility of John McCain. (I’ll have the video as soon as it’s available.)

Brzezinski points out that Powell’s endorsement shows that Obama’s administration will be a bi-partisan administration, as it must be. He says one has only to look at what Obama has accomplished in this historic campaign and the millions of people he has inspired at this time in history when our nation is mired in this deep and dangerous crisis. He is a transformative figure. Besides, look at the guys who made the worst foreign policy decisions in our lifetimes, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney. They had thirty years of “foreign policy experience.” Look what they got us into. Give me Barack Obama’s wisdom any day.

We didn’t hear any more from Joe. He was pretty much knocked out for the rest of the interview. Gotta love it. You just have to hit these guys where they live. You have to wait them out while they rant and rave and go through their little talking points. And when they are finished, you start making the intellectual argument for truth. They’ll end up on the ground with a bloody nose every time.

O'Neal Compton - The Whole American Hog

Gen. Colin Powell Endoreses Obama On Meet The Press

This just in, moments ago on NBC' s Meet The Press, former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. (Ret.) Colin Powell  has just endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.

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