Powell Endorses Obama: What Does It Mean?
I imagine just about every reader of Heartfeldt Politics watched Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama on today’s Meet the Press; you can listen to the key points on this podcast.
I often find Powell too wishy washy for my taste, but then he is a diplomat by disposition and profession. And in this case, the cool, calm, measured way he articulated his reasons for endorsing Obama while respecting McCain may have served the national debate well. At least I am sure it serves the debate going on about my most recent previous post here between Linda and Stacy.
Key point summarized by Jonathan Martin at Politico point out that even devoted moderate Republicans like Powell do finally have a breaking point with the meanness and right wing extremism that has captured the Republican Party in recent years.
But Powell made plain that his decision to back the Democrat was as much motivated by what he saw from McCain and the GOP as anything Obama had said or done, using much of his explanation to express unhappiness about the campaign of a man he’s known for 25 years…The former Army general and moderate Republican also repeatedly expressed concern about the GOP’s “rightward shift,” using the selection of Sarah Palin for vice president as an example. Palin, Powell said flatly, is not qualifed because she’s not ready to be president — the primary role of the vice president . Powell, a native son of New York City, also knocked one of Palin’s signature lines. “Not just small towns have values,” he said.
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Powell didn’t address some of the issues we have been talking about here, in particular McCain’s positions on women’s or reproductive rights, nor the disdain for women’s health that I feel exhibited in the last debate by putting that key concern into quotation marks with his hand gestures. However, Powell did include probable Supreme Court appointments in his reasons why he chose Obama over McCain.
Powell’s endorsement comes at the time when the candidates are closing their deals with the American public and when the majority of Americans are making their final voting decision. Some will say that blood is simply thicker than water and it’s not surprise that an African American man would endorse another African American man. My guess is there is a shred of truth, even though Powell’s creds as an honest broker are strong. It’s not going to make the difference in the outcome of the presidential race in any case, for Powell in typical fashion didn’t take a particularly courageous or game changing stand.
Nevertheless, his endorsement of Barack Obama is especially important for many who have worried about Obama’s foreign affairs leadership qualifications and for many independents and moderate Republicans who are still uneasy about Obama for a variety of reasons.
Powell has basically summed up where the majority of Americans already are politically. It won’t change many votes but it will increase voters’ comfort level with the man Powell calls “transformational figure”. And when it comes to governing post-election, that will be of enormous importance in an Obama presidency.
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.