Aug 13th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
A Powell Endorsement?
Bill Kristol says Colin Powell will endorse Obama soon:
That would be a significant addition to the “Republicans for Obama” movement.
46 Responses to “A Powell Endorsement?”
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August 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I’ve been calling this for a while, as a lot of people have, but I figured that a Powell endorsement would come around October.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Cue the right-wing noise machine pointing out that Colin Powell is a Negro.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Do we have any reason to believe a single word Bill Kristol says?
August 13th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
That would be a powerful endorsement – if not for that UN presentation thingie. Powell should have resigned in 2003, he has now about as much credibility as Cheney or Rice.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Colin Powell just went up in my book.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
It’s very big — especially because the people who are still angry about the UN presentation thingie are generally already supporting Obama.
To act as if having George Bush’s famous and well-respected Secretary of State endorse the Democrat over Bush’s designated successor is completely silly. Powell had a long and distinguished career in government over both Republican and Democratic administrations — sure, we may not like him much, but the optics on this are just fantastic for Obama and murder on McCain.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I agree with Jake — it will be spinned as Powell endorsing Obama because he’s black.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Assuming for the moment that this is true, how in the world does Bill Kristol break the story? The principals on both sides of this–Obama and Powell–and their respective staffs would seem very unlikely to give Kristol the scoop. I have good reason to believe they both hate his guts.
It’s more likely that a Republican would put this trial balloon out through Kristol, no? From a Republican source, it could either discourage Powell from joining the Democrats or build drama for his endorsement of McCain.
I’d love to be proved wrong, but I’m thinking this one smells of fish.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
That was my immediate reaction, that it will be spun sa “it’s just because he’s black.” The one thing that counteracts that though is that he’s so familiar as a Republican–as somebody standing next to Bush et. al that maybe that spin won’t wear very well.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Powell hinted at it in a CNN interview back in February. When I heard it, it seemed to me pretty clear that he was going to endorse Obama if he won the nomination, but wasn’t going to declare before the nominees were chosen. Lines like this–
–made it pretty clear where his sympathies lie. I parse that stuff about ‘party’ in terms of discomfort with the GOP.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Now, since it’s Bilbo Kristol, who is always wrong, the reason to float it might be to stop it from happening. Somehow I get the feeling that Powell hates glib, cowardly warmongering shits like Kristol with a passion.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Count me as one of the skeptics. You know how you can tell when Bill Kristol is lying? His lips are moving.
As welcome a development as this would be, I’ll believe it when it comes from a more credible source.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Powell’s spokesperson denied it. Bill Kristol continues his 0-for-the-past-30-years streak.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Whether or not the right wing claims Powell makes the endorsement because Obama is black, you can bet they will go on a month-long hate spree against him.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Aye, I’m disappointed that this leaked now if it’s true. It gives Kristol, Hannity, and the wingnut brigade time to prepare for it. Better to hit them with this and leave them flummoxed and sputtering. Get ready for the Scott McClellan treatement, Colin.
And if it’s not true, we havent’ really lost anything.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
If this happens, and as it hasn’t happened yet so who really knows, no amount of spin will convince anyone who isn’t already deeply tied to the Republican (i.e. Bush/McCain) cause. don’t forget folks, Zbig has said he kinda expects Powell to endorse McCain. Also, do not forget the Powell Doctrine when you think about Mccain and his pre-presidential Georgian fiasco.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
The thing that struck me is that Cavuto calls Powell the “Republican’s Republican.” Standard operating procedure for these kinds of defections is to immediately claim that the ex-Republican is disgruntled or has a “history of flirting with Democrats” or some such. The fact that Cavuto did the exact opposite makes me suspicious of the veracity of this report (as others have pointed out above).
August 13th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
So, Powell’s spokesman denies it, and that becomes the headline.
Smirking Bill, the cowardly shithouse, works the refs again.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Jesus, Matt. We’re taking Bill Kristol at face value now? Snap out of it, man.
August 13th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Powell has yet another opportunity to do the right thing (in this case, strongly endorse Obama). He’s [fouled] up dang near every other time. Maybe this one will be different. That would be nice.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Does anyone have a link to the denial? Sounds like all he’s denying is that he’s going to speak at the Dem convention:
“I do not have time to waste on Bill Kristol’s musings. I am not going to the convention. I have made this clear.”
August 13th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
sorry, mean to include the link:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/13/kristol-colin-powell-to-endorse-barack-obama/
August 13th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
When are we going to stop being Charlie Brown with the football?
Colin Powell has never done the right thing. For some mysterious reason, he’s got all this cred, and liberals gush about him and how – when he inevitably does the *wrong* thing, he does it with heavy heart, or out of some misplaced sense of loyalty, or because he’s fighting backchannels – and they keep waiting and hoping and waiting for him to do the right and honourable thing.
And he never does.
August 13th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
If you’re wondering why a machiavel like Kristol would report that Powell intends to endorse Obama: obviously, it’s to bring pressure to bear on Powell not to.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Yeah, I’d be reluctant (to say the least) to take Kristol at face value, but now Zbigniew Brzezinski is chiming in: “I sort of expect he [Powell] will [endorse Obama].”
I don’t know what that means, but worth mentioning, I guess.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:29 am
“Frankly, we’ve lost a lot in recent years”
Yeah, thanks to W enablers like you, Colin.
It’s really kind of a tragedy, at one time I though Powell could have been a capable president but he had to go and get involved with W who has an amazing gift for destroying the political careers of his allies.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Powell is no doubt angling for another job, complete with driver, limo, secretary, corner office etc. Must be hard for him to be a nobody.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Sadly this is Kristol. He’s wrong about everything. You could make an index of future events based on the predicitons of Mark Halerpin, Robert Novak, Thomas Friedman and Bill Kristol and know with a high level of certainty what definitely won’t happen. 1) Since when has Kristol ever done investigating journalism; 2) who in the world who’s close to Powell would choose Kristol to give the scoop to.
Of course Kristol’s not an idiot; there’s a point to his continual lying. Kristol’s main motivation is probably to remind conservatives that they should really hate Colin Powell. Or it could be what kth is arguing–sort of the Sy Hersh game where you try to prevent something by predicting it’s going to happen and thereby building up resistance to it.
If Powell does go to Obama, however, it will be odd to remember that in 2000, McCain said that Powell was the “800-pound gorilla” who could have any position he wanted in a McCain presidency. Now that Powell’s been instrumental in bringing about disaterous policies which McCain loves, that’s all changed?
August 21st, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Pseudonymous in nc is precisely right. There is no other way to interpret Powell’s statements. He will endorse Senator Barack Obama because Barack Obama, despite all the counter measures to frame his recent trip abroad as a merely celebrity laden show, has powerfully demonstrated the ability to regain the admiration and prestige America has lost under President George W. Bush.
McCain clearly exudes the opposite type of leadership Powell believes we need.
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