Colin Powell Completes His Move to the Left with a Stupid Decision

He may deny it, but I think race won out because qualifications certainly didn't:

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.

There are so many things wrong with this. For one thing, no official of the Republican Party or the McCain campaign ever accused Obama of being a Muslim. That was coming from partisans who were not officials of either the campaign or the party, and it's disingenuous for Powell to bring that up as a reason for his decision.

Secondly, this "great leader" that Powell describes has created a country with the greatest divide between its citizens since the Civil War. Obama has shown absolutely no desire for any kind of bipartisanship, and instead has sought to suppress his political opposition and punish those who would be critical of him.

The "personal" attacks (as Powell describes them) have been legitimate attempts to point out the weaknesses in Obama's background and associations and fill in the gaps in his resume that the mainstream press won't do. That's all part of the campaign process, and if Powell can't understand or tolerate that, it's a good thing he never chose to run for elective office.

In another article Powell is described as being "uncomfortable with two more Republican Supreme Court nominations". Uncomfortable with justices like John Roberts or Sam Alito? He'd rather have more radicals like Ruth "Buzzy" Ginsberg or David Souter (a Republican nominee, by the way) who seek their precedence in European law? Foolish.

Powell is now trying to atone for the sins, real or imagined, he committed in the run-up to the Iraq War. He has been an object of derision among the left and he's trying to make it all better with this endorsement and weak reasoning. He's tired of being called an "Uncle Tom" and "house n-word" for being part of a Republican administration, and today he hopes he ended that.

And getting back to why I think race played a bigger part than anyone wants to admit, this item from Drudge from a few months ago:

FLASHBACK: Powell Told students an African-American president would be 'electrifying'...

I'll tell you what's going to be "electrifying" - having a president who doesn't know what he's doing working in concert with a Congress overwhelmingly populated with leftist Democrats. The good news is 2010 is shaping up to be a GOP wave year.

Powell has been moving left since even before he departed the White House, but the press will ignore that and just play up the "Republican endorses Obama" angle. Veteran political watchers will know this endorsement has been coming and expected for some time, but look for the press to play it as a huge surprise and development in the campaign.

At one point I thought he would make a good president. I was clearly wrong. He doesn't get it.