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Colin Powell Endorses Obama on 'Meet the Press'

This is definitely not an average election! I was shocked to see/hear long-time Republican, Colin Powell endorse Barack Obama...but i was even more surprised to hear his negative thoughts about how the McCain camp is handling the campaign.

Video/Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27265369/

Quote:

Powell endorses Obama for president
Republican ex-secretary of state calls Democrat ‘transformational figure’

BREAKING NEWS

WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president on Sunday, criticizing his own Republican Party for what he called its narrow focus on irrelevant personal attacks over a serious approach to challenges he called unprecedented.

Powell, who for many years was considered the most likely candidate to become the first African-American president, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was not supporting Obama because of his race. He said he had watched both Obama and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for many months and thought “either one of them would be a good president.”

But he said McCain’s choices in the last few weeks — especially his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his vice presidential running mate — had raised questions in his mind about McCain’s judgment.

“I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States,” Powell said flatly. By contrast, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, “is ready to be president on day one.”

Powell also said he was “troubled” by Republican personal attacks on Obama, especially false intimations that Obama was Muslim and Republicans’ recent focus on Obama’s alleged connections to William Ayers, the founder of the radical ’60 Weather Underground.
Stressing that Obama was a lifelong Christian, Powell denounced Republican tactics that he said were insulting not only to to Obama but also to Muslims.

“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.

“I look at these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said. “Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.”

In an interview Sunday on Fox News, McCain said he was not surprised by the announcement.

“I’ve always admired and respected General Powell,” said McCain, who cited the endorsements he had received from former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger. “We have a respectful disagreement.”

Bolstering Obama’s international credentials
Powell, a retired Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush before becoming secretary of state in the current administration, is one of the most highly decorated military officers of modern times and an admired figure in both parties. The Obama campaign is likely to cite the endorsement as an answer to critics and undecided voters who have questioned the foreign policy credential of Obama, a first-term senator whose national experience amounts to four years in the Senate.

Powell said a major part of his decision to turn his back on his own party was his conclusion that Obama was the better option to repair frayed U.S. relations with allies overseas.

“This is the time for outreach,” Powell said, saying the next president would have to “reach out and show the world there is a new administration that is willing to reach out.”

In particular, he said, he welcomed Obama’s president to “talk to people we haven’t talked to,” a reference to Obama’s controversial statement that he would be open to direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders.

“I think that [Obama] has a definite way of doing business that will serve us well,” Powell said.

[More of the Article]

I mentioned this where we were discussing it in the other thread, but it's really not that shocking (taking into account Powell's break with the current administration, and the low risk/high reward of endorsing Obama at this stage in the campaign).

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSigkid (Post 1732893)

KSig, I was surprised to here Powell speak about his distaste for the Republican party moving more to the right, with the selection of Gov Palin. I always thought of Powell being a more right leaning conservative... it appears he leans more to the middle--A position I once recognized McCain to be in. Does this surprise you, or has Powell always thought this way?

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinksirfidel (Post 1732903)

KSig, I was surprised to here Powell speak about his distaste for the Republican party moving more to the right, with the selection of Gov Palin. I always thought of Powell being a more right leaning conservative... it appears he leans more to the middle--A position I once recognized McCain to be in. Does this surprise you, or has Powell always thought this way?

This is kind of BS. By what measure is Sarah Palin further to the right than Bush?

(maybe by limiting government spending or having more respect for civil liberties, but I don't think that's what Powell has in mind.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by pinksirfidel (Post 1732903)

Powell's pretty moderate - he's pro-choice, pro gun-control, and foreign policy-wise he's almost right down the middle. I'm not sure about his economic views, but otherwise he's about as moderate as it gets.

ETA: I think his military background and the fact he's Republican lead people to overestimate how conservative he really is.

I've never thought Colin Powell to be Republican.

At least he's pro-fascist now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk (Post 1732910)

I've never thought Colin Powell to be Republican.

At least he's pro-fascist now.

How exactly does endorsing the liberal candidate make Colin Powell "pro-fascist," especially since fascism opposes liberalism and supports strong nationalism and preparedness for war at all times?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munchkin03 (Post 1732919)

How exactly does endorsing the liberal candidate make Colin Powell "pro-fascist," especially since fascism opposes liberalism and supports strong nationalism and preparedness for war at all times?

It also encourages control of it's population through any means possible.

Obamas progressive taxation and willingness to assume more control over the wealth of a nation and with that, the freedom of a nation is fascism. Money is the means to live, the means to eat. If he assumes himself the dictator of what it is to live, that is fascism. Furthermore, his want to control medicine and health of the nation through Universal Health care which makes him even further in control of the American populace. I suppose you could claim him a Communist, but perfect Commies are for the eventual tearing down of the state.

Absolutely disgusting (although McCain is not much better, I always see economic control as a far worse thing than moral control)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk (Post 1732923)

It also encourages control of its population through any means possible.

This is true, but only to a point. Fascism--at least in its ideal form--endorses control of a population by very specific means (usually by extreme nationalism and militarism, and not by "any means possible." Fascism is also opposed to Communism and Socialism, by the way.

It seems to me that people tend to use the term not as a way to connect a politician's views to those of Hitler or Mussolini (textbook fascists), but as a slur against a political opponent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munchkin03 (Post 1732928)

It seems to me that people tend to use the term not as a way to connect a politician's views to those of Hitler or Mussolini (textbook fascists), but as a slur against a political opponent.

Not to go on too much of a threadjack, but this has been an argument of political scholars for quite a long time. George Orwell wrote an article on the subject in the 1940s: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munchkin03 (Post 1732928)

This is true, but only to a point. Fascism--at least in its ideal form--endorses control of a population by very specific means (usually by extreme nationalism and militarism, and not by "any means possible." Fascism is also opposed to Communism and Socialism, by the way.

It seems to me that people tend to use the term not as a way to connect a politician's views to those of Hitler or Mussolini (textbook fascists), but as a slur against a political opponent.

I agree with you on this, and I don't think that the Bush=Hitler rhetoric by some helped any.

I got irritated about the Bush as a fascist rhetoric a few years ago*, and spent time thinking about it: even the methods and ideologies of Hitler and Mussolini aren't really as close in terms of economic systems as maybe one would think. And they sure as heck don't apply to either of the mainstream two party candidates in this election.

*not that Bush was great, but we were a far cry from fascist by any stretch of the imagination, and yet I knew people who really felt there were strong parallels. There are actually probably stronger parallels with fascism now after the bailout, depending on how one interprets "corporativismo."

I watched this this morning. I loved his responses. But he's a fellow JA-er so I love him regardless.

I also saw on our local station (WPLG) where TV head editor/anchor Michael Putney had a chance to interview McCain while he was down here for the rally at FIU. McCain was so out there. Mr. Putney would begin asking a question and McCain would interrupt, knowing that the question would be one that wasn't necessarily putting him in the best light (example: Putney began to ask about poll numbers being in Obama's favor and McCain would cut him off and start talking about polls that were in his favor). It's fine if he wants to steer his answer towards something that makes him look good. I don't blame him. But, let the interviewer at least finish the question! He made himself look not only rude, but as if he can't take the "heat".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munchkin03 (Post 1732928)

Fascism is also opposed to Communism and Socialism, by the way.

Nazi stands for "National Socialist Party" FYI, and economically it was a very Socialist movement.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia "Nazi" article

"In place of ordinary profit incentive to guide the economy, investment was guided through regulation to accord to the needs of the State. The profit incentive for business owners was retained, though greatly modified through various profit-fixing schemes: “Fixing of profits, not their suppression, was the official policy of the Nazi party.” However the function of profit in automatically guiding allocation of investment and unconsciously directing the course of the economy was replaced with economic planning by Nazi government agencies. Government financing eventually came to dominate the investment process, which the proportion of private securities issued falling from over half of the total in 1933 and 1934 to approximately 10 percent in 1935–1938. Heavy taxes on business profits limited self-financing of firms. The largest firms were mostly exempt from taxes on profits, however government control of these were extensive enough to leave “only the shell of private ownership.”"

...

Taxes and subsidies were also used in order to direct the economy.

Windfall profits tax, anyone?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munchkin03 (Post 1732928)

Fascism is also opposed to Communism and Socialism, by the way.

In practice, this is wrong.

Fascism = in practice Communism

Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and the other great Commies of the 20th century were fascists. Especially by your standards of nationalism and readiness to go to war. F.A. Hayek said that "Socialism can be cut of any wood. A socialist can go through stages of fascism, theoretical communism, democratic socialism, etc".

This Machine kills Fascists.

I've become a big Woody Guthrie fan of late, especially the redo of his songs by Billy Bragg and Wilco in Mermaid Avenue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elephant Walk (Post 1732923)

I get hysterical
Hysteria
Oh, can you feel it (Oh can you feel it)
Do you believe it (Do you believe it)
It's such a magical mysteria
When you get that feelin' (When you get that feelin')
Better start believin (Better start believin')
Cause it's a miracle
Say you will, ooh babe
Hysteria when you're near

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TjPbeyHIO0

ETA: And I love munchkin's siggy