This would be the second time this week that Colin Powell threw his reputation behind a politician. He also appeared as a character witness in the trial of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens accused of falsifying Senate reports to conceal gifts (i.e. hundreds of thousands of dollars in home improvements). Perhaps both the trial jury there and the broader electorate will be soothed by Powell’s kind words.
However, in the presidential political realm, it would at the very least suggest Powell doesn’t believe much of what Barack Obama has been saying. I don’t recall Powell, while in office, suggesting an immediate cut-off of funds for U.S. troops in Iraq or urging the President to meet unconditionally with Ahmadinejad. I do, however, recall that he and John McCain joined forces on subjects such as a legislative ban on torture. But politics is strange stuff and maybe he has been given assurances and sees a different picture of Obama from the one on display in the Democratic primary and then the general election. So many people are banking on Obama’s callow deception of the netroot base, aren’t they?
