Colin Powell: Oops

Today seems to be the day for "oops" posts from prominent supporters of Obama.  Campaign Spot has a piece on Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State for George W. Bush, who endorsed Obama in 2008 (largely due to race) and now is clearly having second thoughts:

Sunday: “Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president in 2008 despite serving three Republican presidents, said Sunday that Obama needs to change his approach in the White House because voters are feeling overwhelmed by sweeping new laws that expand the scope of government. 'The president also has to . . . shift the way in which he has been doing things,' Powell said on NBC’s 'Meet the Press.' 'The American people feel that too many programs have come down. There are so many rocks in our knapsack now that we’re having trouble carrying it.'”


You’re probably scoffing at how milquetoast that is, but inside-the-Beltway, this is a big deal. Colin Powell doesn’t go on these Sunday morning programs unless he wants to, and he doesn’t appear unless he has something to say. Powell could have easily demurred, murmured soothing sounds about the difficulty of governing in the modern age with the 24-7 news cycle and expressed confidence that, in time, the wisdom of the president’s decisions would be clear. Mild as Powell’s criticism is, by Washington standards, we just witnessed the political equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval leaping out of a moving vehicle in desperation.

Powell, who nobody disputes is a smart guy, got suckered by hope and change, not to mention the whole "first black president" thing. The thing is, there was a time when Powell himself might have been able to become the first black president but chose not to run, and I'm thankful for that because I doubt he would have been much of an improvement over Obama.  He turned out to be pretty much a squish on conservative issues.