Elephantman (in denial)

I read your post and said to myself will this person ever have a view that was not used as a talking point for a political party (guess which one).

Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama as was his right as a private citizen. Rush Limbaugh has a radio show because people want to hear what he has to say. Colin Powell's endorsement carried wieght because people value what he thinks and says, period.

The Republican party members in Congress and the Senate vote the desires and demands of its party not the wishes of the American people. That is clear just from the few votes that have been conducted this year. Senator McCain pandered to one side of the populace that had the money and the noise makers. He also allowed himself to be persuaded to be exclusive of people and not inclusive of VOTERS.

In short McCain ran a bad campaign and had even worse advisors. He wanted to win and was willing to risk his integrity and honor to do so. I do not know Senator McCain but it is clear that Colin Powell does and who better to judge his actions than a person that actually knows who he is and what he became in his pursuit of the Presidency. I am not qualified to make a personal assessment of Senator McCain or General Powel and nor are you. It is easier to blame Colin Powell or the Media or anyone else than it is to accept that the Republican party and Senator McCain lost the elections in November all by themsleves.

-- Inthefray

So let's make this reeeaally easy:

~ Colin Powell is a "Republican".... why?

~ What issues make Colin Powell a Republican?

~ If Powell is not a Republican (an unremarkable, no-news story if ever there was one), isn't Dick Cheney exactly right when he remarked, "I didn't know that he [Powell] was still a Republican..."?

You see, Powell doesn't have to be a Republican. Nobody said he had to sign on for another four years with the party, like you do in the Army. He can endorse any one he'd like. Just don't make it about any claimed Republican or right wing "extremism," based solely on Colin Powell, who hasn't taken a stand on a hard political issue in his life.

Incidentally, Republicans have just generally forgotten about Powell, unless and until a reporter like Bob Schieffer of CBS asks Dick Cheney a pointed question about the man. Compare that to the hyperventilating that the left did when Joe Lieberman (another noted moderate, and a McCain endorser) defected to "Independent" status.

To put it another way, how did YOU feel about President Barrack Obama's tenuous association with 60s terrorist William Ayers? WQell, that's the way people felt about John McCain's association with people like G. Gordon Liddy.

-- MAV in Florida

Obama's association with Ayers filled me with disgust. I think it should have filled everyone with disgust. But it didn't, of course. It didn't strip off any of Obama's core support. No 'respectable' Democrat thought the "Bill Ayers thing" had any relevance. There were no Democrat Colin Powells, who rejected Obama for being too far left and too tied into far left figures like Ayers.

But on the other hand, you seem to say that McCain's tenuous association with Liddy really did strip off much of McCain's support, and that it might even have been the difference in the election. And, that it was "the difference" with Powell's 2008 endorsement.

There's no objective way to make this about any alleged Republican "extremism." Not with McCain as the candidate. This is all about Powell, and his own political rootlessness. Again I ask, does anybody know where Powell stands on any issues? Has the guy ever had to do anything other than play the role of "respected general"? If he wants to be a Democrat, he can be one. But that doesn't say anything about the Republicans. And that was Rush's point, going all the way back to last fall, when he asked how anyone could explain Powell's endorsement of Obama except as a matter of (arguably legitimate) Powell's enthusiasm that America elect, at long last, a black President? For asking that question, Limbaugh was burned at the stake by the national liberal media. Limbaugh, however, was simply demonstrating the guts to ask the right question.