It was a pretty cool moment when Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama -- but I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the right's pushback, as expressed by George Will, when asked if Powell's endorsement was going to have a "big impact":
Some impact. And I think this adds to my calculation -- this is very hard to measure -- but it seems to me if we had the tools to measure we'd find that Barack Obama gets two votes because he's black for every one he loses because he's black because so much of this country is so eager, a, to feel good about itself by doing this, but more than that to put paid to the whole Al Sharpton/Jessee Jackson game of political rhetoric.
Wha--?
He's not alone, of course. Pat Buchanan went there, Rush Limbaugh went there. The rank-and-file are just revving up. The right-wing bloggers were already there as soon as the endorsement was known, digging up pics of Powell hanging with rappers.
Classy.
Instead of acknowledging that maybe, just maybe, Powell actually thinks Obama is the better candidate, we get this. Again, more culture war. More "us" versus "them." More narrowing the boundaries of what an "American" looks like and sounds like for these people who find it better to stir the bitter cup of hatred, division and rancor in the country than admit Obama is worthy and capable of the job.
Here's Powell outside the studio after his announcement:
We have two wars. We have economic problems. We have health problems. We have education problems. We have infrastructure problems. We have problems around the world with our allies. Those are the problems the American people wanted to hear about.
Not about Mr. Ayers. Not about who's a Muslim, who's not a Muslim....
We've got to say to the world, doesn't make a difference who you are, or what you are, if you're an American, you're an American. This business of, for exmaple, the Congressman from Minnesota who's going around saying, let's examine all Congressmen to see who's pro-America or not pro-America.
We have got to stop this kind of nonsense!
I'm with BooMan. It's pretty obvious it's this type of divisive rhetoric that pushed him to endorse Obama:
Colin Powell woke up this morning as someone that was reviled by the left and most of the world for his phony WMD presentation before the United Nations on February 5th, 2003. He goes to sleep tonight, reviled on the right as a racist who puts racial solidarity over principle. Colin Powell was respected by the Washington elite and much of the right. Now he's no better than Al Sharpton and Cynthia McKinney. I'm sure Powell knew this would happen. That's why I'm fairly certain he's sincere in thinking McCain-Palin will be a disaster for this country. If he didn't think that, why would he subject himself to this abuse?
