Colin Powell endorses Barrack Obama

I went to see the former Secretary of State when he visited Wilkes-Barre in December 2007 and had this to say after the program:

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I'm sure whoever wins the Republican nomination in 2008 will ask the General to be his/her running mate. Imagine a McCain/Powell ticket?

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Well, it looks like I got that one wrong. Norton recaps his appearance on Meet the Press where he spelled out his reasons for voting for Obama. He sounded more disappointed with McCain than pro Obama. He said that "he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems," he decried the negative tone of the McCain campaign and the pick of Sarah Palin as VP. He also gave an impassioned reason to vote for Obama that you can read in the transcript.

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The reaction on the right has been predictable and ugly. I was listening to Rush today and I thought his head would explode. He shouted into the mic that Powell's endorsement was all about race. I guess the corollary to that is that his support of McCain is all about race.

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Back to Powell's W-B visit:

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The thing that stuck with me is he said don't let the terrorist change who we are. We are the most open, free and generous people in history. And when mistakes are made, like the Patriot Act or using torture, we have the means to fix them.

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For the most part I don't think that individual endorsements matter for much more than a press release and some short term publicity but this may be different.

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Our last poll had Obama winning the last debate over McCain 50%-37% with Cole Hamels coming in with 13%. It is interesting that nobody called it a draw. There is a new poll up about the Powell endorsement on the sidebar.