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Today, Gen. Powell endorsed Mr. Obama for president. Today, I lost a fair amount of respect for Gen. Powell. The reasons are not the most simple, so allow me to elaborate.
From the beginning of my opposition to Mr. Obama's campaign, I have said the one motivation of his supporters I could not argue with was the desire of their children to have a President who looked like them, so they would know they could be President one day. I still do not begrudge this reason, and would not begrudge it from Gen. Powell.
Gen. Powell said that his endorsement was not about race, and I believe him.
Sadly, it appears that the reason is political opportunism.
As Gen. Powell is widely considered one of the most respected Americans, this is a surprising, and probably to many offensive, statement. Allow me to defend it.
The platforms of both parties have been known for months, if not years. If the endorsement were based on this, it could have been made long ago. Instead, it was used as an October surprise against Gen. Powell's own party. If it were a simple personal feeling, there could have been a press release, and Gen. Powell could have answered questions about it in a single media appearance. Instead, it was stage-managed, with suspense raised to magnify it's effect. It was a calculated move.
Gen. Powell gave several reasons for betraying his party, but they all revolved around the notion that the Republican party is becoming too right wing. This is so ludicrous that it is hard to believe he said this. Gen. Powell served in the two farthest right administrations in modern history. He can plead duty for the Reagan administration, but he has no such defense for the second Bush administration. It is a distinction without a difference anyway, as most of the people are the same, just with different titles. These are people, by the way, who hate, loathe and revile Mr. McCain for his liberalism. Who believed that it was so important that he be prevented from defiling the Republican party with his liberalism that they were willing to slander a war hero, to break any code of morals, to defeat him. He chose to be part of this type administration with his eyes wide open. Yet he now claims he cannot support their once rival from the left, becuase that (relatively)leftist rival is too right wing? He points to Ms. Palin's selection as evidence of this rightward shift, yet Ms. Palin is Vladamir Lenin compared to many in the Reagan/Bush II administrations. Gen. Powell's explanation is insulting to the public.
This leads us to Gen. Powell's real motivation, whether completely conscious or not, political opportunism, a political application of the vaunted Powell Doctrine. Throughout Powell's career, he resisted action, even while implementing it. This earned him the nickname "The Reluctant Warrior". Of course, this also allowed him to play both sides, taking credit for success while hedging against failure. This can be seen most clearly in the run up to the second Iraq war. Gen. Powell again appeared reluctant to attack, while at the same time implementing his part of the action. When it went bad, he washed his hands of it and quit. His hedge was successful, and he escaped much criticism. The act of courage would have been to resign in protest of the invasion, but that would have denied him the credit if it succeeded.
Now, after withholding his opinion until a late hour, when the polls and prevailing belief favor Mr. Obama, Gen. Powell has attacked, again with overwhelming force, parroting the Obama campaigns talking points. This time, instead of outgunned, conscripted Iraqis, the target of his attack was his own party.
He has once again hedged his position as well, contributing the maximum to the McCain campaign.
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6 comments:
wait a sec - i'm interested in that last line. are you saying he contributed financially to the mccain campaign? and THEN came out and did this?
Yes, exactly.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/08/09/powell-donates-to-mccain/
$2300, the maximum allowed by a individual.
General Powell has carefully listed his reasons for endorsing Senator Obama. How can any of us decide we know what his REAL motives are? Most of us have mixed motives for our actions: some altruistic, and some self-serving motives can contribute to one action. None of us can confidently judge the exact motives behind another persons actions. If we respect independent-minded thinkers, mavericks even, then we have to respect that no matter what party we see it in.
Of course, we cannot know the internal thoughts of another.
However, Powell's reasons do not stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. The idea that McCain is a right winger is ludicrous on it's face. Powell worked in two separate administrations, separated by 12 years, which included the farthest right people who would be willing to take a government check. These are people who believed it was a good thing that the deficit was so high, because it might actually prevent the government from working. They were anarcho-capitalists. Obama is ranked as the most liberal senator, Biden the third most. The officially socialist senator is fourth. Even if you discount all of that, there is the timing. McCain has been trending towards the center since he got the nomination, and especially since the acceleration of the financial crisis. If a trend towards the right bothered Powell so much, it would have been obvious months ago, yet as late as August he explicitly said he was not ready to endorse. The tone argument holds no water since it was Obama that Powell criticized first on negative ads.
If Powell had endorsed earlier, he might have some ground to stand on. But he didn't. He waited until the outcome appeared almost certain. The time that he waited undermined much of his reasoning. But it allowed him to make a safe bet.
According to your source, General Powell donated to Senator McCain's PRIMARY election fund in August 2007. I see no inconsistency between Powell hoping that McCain would become the GOP nominee, and his general election decision to vote for Senator Obama. Please be careful with your facts. The donation to Senator McCain's primary fund gives credence to Powell's hope for a more centrist GOP. I believe that shows that McCain had every chance to win Powell's endorsement, and that he lost it fair and square.
I was impressed beyond words with General Powell's endorsement speech. He strikes me as an extremely thoughtful person who struggled with this decision. I was so pleased to hear someone finally speak up about the fact that "Muslim" has become a dirty word in this election. I wish both Senator Obama and Senator McCain had been courageous enough to make a joint statement to that effect when the rumors about religion first started swirling.
General Powell has served his country in ways I can not even fathom and he has earned the right to make the endorsement of his choice on his own terms.
I don't see anything misleading about my statement. Brokaw mentioned it as simply a "contribution" on the Powell interview, and lead directly into the endorsement question with it. Gen. Powell did not object to that characterization. My detailed response to Mr. Powell exact statement is above.
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