Friday, October 26, 2012

Colin Powell's endorsement and the reaction

Gen. Colin Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama sparked a top surrogate of Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Former senator John Sununu claimed that Powell endorsed Obama simply the president if black.

Powell endorsed Obama in the 2008 race and many analysts believe his support helped Obama then and will help him again in this election.  For many years, Powell was either the most popular or one of the most popular prominent Republicans.

Neo-conservatives used goodwill harbored for Powell to sell the Iraq War to the public.  Powell, himself, claims that the administration duped him into arguing for a war based on made-up evidence.

Of course, Powell is not the only prominent Republican to endorse Obama.  Former Florida governor Charlie Crist is another GOP leader who endorsed the president.  Also, from Florida, there was the recent case of the "bear-hugging" Republican pizza parlor owner who threw his support behind Obama.

Suggesting that Powell endorsed Obama simply because both are black is part of a pattern used by the Tea Party and other right-wing opponents of the president.  They consistently attempt to racialize the contest in order to stir up the worst sentiments among their supporters.


In endorsing Obama, Powell said:  "When he took over, the country was in very, very difficult straits, we were in one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression ... we were in real trouble.

 "I think generally we've come out of the dive and starting to gain altitude," he said. "I see that we are starting to rise up,"  he said.  On foreign policy, Powell noted: "I'm not quite sure which Governor Romney we'd be getting with respect to foreign policy," and he also called Romney's foreign policy plan "a moving target."

On the GOP nominee's budget proposal, he said, "It's essentially, let's cut taxes and compensate for that with other things, but that compensation does not cover all the cuts intended or the expenses associated with defense."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry O already voted for R. Colin Powell, who cares. Bye Bye to the whole lot of ya.

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