Sunday, October 19, 2008

Powell Endorses Obama - I say disappointing, but whatever.

Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama. Its really not a surprise - General Powell has been murmuring support for Obama over the last few months. He has also become more vocal about his left leaning views - he is pro-abortion, he is uncomfortable with the possibility of replacing Supreme Court Justices with conservatives, and he is a staunch supporter of governmental race based preferences . He apparently thinks redistributing our wealth globally is just dandy, too.

What is disappointing about it, however, is that it stabs in the back those serving in the armed forces. The person Powell has chosen to support has based the majority of his campaign on the war in Iraq being unjust. In fact, Obama and his supporters have yelled from the mountain tops that Bush lied to get us in this war, they misled us on pre-war intelligence and are all a bunch of war criminals. General Powell was the most visible supporter and architect of why we went into Iraq! Has General Powell done what he needed to do to avoid the Obama Iraq Inquisition Trials of 2009? Is this why General Powell chose to wait until now rather than 6, 8, 12 months ago? Does he think "Holy cow, this cat might actually get elected and go through with his war crimes trials! Quick, how much is my soul worth?"

The left, of course, is just beside themselves with excitement for this announcement. Why? How do they justify embracing this person who "lied to the American people to start a war" and is a "war criminal"? Supporting Barry wipes the slate clean much like erasing it from the official Obama website suddenly makes it disappear from reality? Barack is trumpeting this as acknowledgement of his foreign policy experience, but again it begs the question: Does Barack not think General Powell would have been present at all those meetings where Rove, Cheney and W dreamed up all that fake pre-war intelligence? If General Powell was so opposed to this invasion, why didn't he stand up and say so when it would have made a difference? Was he lying then? Now?

Right wing pundits are stating General Powell has done this for no other reason but race. Powell did say that wasn't the reason, but went on to state electing a black president would be “electrifying.” Despite serving under 3 Republicans (Reagan, Bush and W) who promoted him to Four Star General, then Secretary of State AND named his son head of the FCC, General Powell feels the party is "narrow" and racist. Though I don't believe its the sole reason, I can't help but feel it played a big part in the decision making process.

This too is disappointing. Supporting, or opposing, any candidate based on their color is wrong. I am unable to wrap my brain around how rabid people get when faced with the idea that some white guy won't vote for a black candidate just because of race, but then are completely OK with the idea of a black guy voting for a black guy purely because of his race. Isn't that really the same thing as the black guy not voting for the white guy because of his race?

Dr. Martin Luther King was pretty clear when his idea of racial equality was a day when his children would live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. There wasn't an exception in that speech allowing for black people to support other black people out of racial solidarity without regard to the suitability for the position the supported black person is seeking.

So, leftists out there, enjoy your Colin Powell endorsement. You've saved us all the inevitable endless loops of the the good General on CNN reviewing the pre-war intelligence with EVIL WAR CRIMINAL and LIAR scrolling across the bottom had he chosen to endorse McCain