Minimizing the Powell Endorsement
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, McCain
So how is the John McCain campaign handling Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama?
McCain’s surrogates were all over television yesterday downplaying Powell’s decision, saying endorsements aren’t really important, that Powell is mistaken about Obama being “transformational†and that it doesn’t make sense why Powell would endorse a candidate who’s such a throwback to old-school Democratic thinking.
Outside the official McCain campaign, conservatives have been even more dismissive. As Michael Reynolds observed yesterday, some big-name conservative pundits and some rank-and-file members are spinning Powell’s endorsement as racially motivated.
If there is a lazier response, I can’t think of one.
Try as they might, McCain’s campaign and other Republicans cannot erase the importance of Powell’s endorsement. While I’m unsure how many minds Powell’s decision will directly change, the media coverage is bad for McCain. Right when McCain might have been gaining some traction by painting Obama as a hardcore liberal who will tax us back to the stone age, here comes a prominent Republican to make Obama look moderate and disrupt a news-cycle that had been trending in McCain’s direction.
It wasn’t a good Sunday for McCain. Just two weeks to go and his campaign his running out of possible momentum boosters.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:16 am
THIS IS THE BEST NEWS MCCAIN IS DONE….THIS IS OF VERY SIGNIFICANT IMPORTANCE ….EVEN THOUGH MCCAIN CAMP WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE ITS NOT…..THEY KNOW DIFFERENT GO OBAMA!!!
October 20th, 2008 at 7:30 am
What else is J Mack supposed to do? He’s totally painted into a corner – often by his own doing – and now every move is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. He must minimize the Powell endorsement – that’s all he can do. It reminds me so much of watching poor Hillary – a good candidate who just happened to choose to run at the same time as Hurricane Obama. Mack is a good candidate who couldn’t get his grounding against so attractive an opponent – and so he dangles in the wind. The McCain campaign’s tactics are often shameful (like the Powell / racial thing), but history will forgive ‘ole Mac – it’s just Obama’s time – and it seems like there’s not a damned thing Mack can do to stop it. (mmm – the coolaid tastes good)
October 20th, 2008 at 7:34 am
[...] Alan Stewart Carl admits, “It wasn’t a good Sunday for McCain.†No … no, it was not. If you liked this post, [...]
October 20th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Powell’s endorsement comes as no surprise. 95% of blacks are voting for Obama; who says race isn’t a factor when it comes to the black vote. Besides, Powell needs a job. It was so predictable.
McCain has the endorsement of FOUR Secretaries of State, and 200 Generals and Admirals. Score: 4 to 1 – McCain.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:46 am
All of the following is from Daily Kos. Back in April of 2004 Daily Kos’s love did not extend at all for General Powell. In fact, it was downright nasty:
“Uncle Tom Powell Stumps for Massah Bush
Yes suh! Yes suh! Right away suh!
Mr. Powell sir, you are a liar and an apologist for a crooked regime known as the George W. Bush administration. “
October 20th, 2008 at 9:30 am
RM how about a link? Is this Kos or a diarist? What is the context?
mike mcEachran
I think you are wrong on this, history will be fair, but that will be McCain’s undoing.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:02 am
It’s from a diarist. I am honestly surprised is getting love from liberals now since he was so reviled in the past.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/4/12/183155/559
October 20th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I think that is the whole point.
liberals hate karl rove, image if he endorsed obama.
Also, the reason liberals are so mad at powell, is that they trusted him, as the reasonable conservative. And they think he lied to them.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Who are these “liberals” who were so mad at Powell? Disappointed, yes, but only because Powell was a trusted Bush endorser, who helped Bush get elected, and who then proved to be impotent against Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove. Few people think he lied, they think he obeyed his boss (an unbreakable military ethic), and was unable to be the “voice of reason” we thought he could be. No one I know blames him for the mess. Bush and co., was going to war no matter what – there is not doubt about it. Powell was lied to – we were lied to – Congress was lied to. Yes, I wish he had resigned prior to going to the UN, but that would have only put our troupes in more danger. Remember, too, we have the advantage of hind-site. He must have known they were going to war come hell or high water. What chaos would have ensued had he publicly dissented? That is something no military man would do to his country.
So, mw, et all – go ahead and throw Powell under the bus. I’m sure you would have done a much better job stopping your candidate from driving the country into the morass.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I have to agree with mike. I think he made the point better than I did.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I wasn’t sure what General Powell meant by “transformational,” so I did a little research on the subject and found this excellent synopsis of Transformational Leadership.
Towards the end of the article is this interesting tidbit:
“One of the traps of Transformational Leadership is that passion and confidence can easily be mistaken for truth and reality. Whilst it is true that great things have been achieved through enthusiastic leadership, it is also true that many passionate people have led the charge right over the cliff and into a bottomless chasm. Just because someone believes they are right, it does not mean they are right.”
Given the full meaning of transformational leadership, I would have to agree with General Powell that Barack Obama would be a transformational president.
October 20th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Honestly, I’ve had enough of the election. I know who I’m going to vote for and endorsements and commercials aren’t going to change my mind.
The economy is going to keep sliding until this election is decided. The current president, has failed to offer any meaningful leadership that would get us out of this economic mess. So, I suspect that when a new president is elected, the public will have a better sense of where the country is going.
No matter who is elected, he needs to take decisive action to repair the economy. I signed this petition to the 44th prsident.
http://friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/44_email.html
The message is clear — we need you to lead us out of this economic mess.
October 20th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Most people saw this coming. And Powell’s comment on Meet The Press yesterday indicated why – he doesn’t want a conservative Supreme Court. It is because Obama is an extreme pro-Abortion candidate. While some say that he’s backing Obama because of Race, I have to question this assertion: given Powell’s intelligence that A) the modern abortion environment stems from the Eugenics movement (Margaret Sanger – originally intending to sterilize and/or exterminate blacks); B) that Planned Parenthood conducts 79% of it’s “business” in minority communities; and, C) that 1/3 of the total number of black Americans currently U.S. citizens have been aborted…thus, it is clearly impossible to argue that Powell supports Obama exclusively for the reason that he is black. It is the culture of death that Powell espouses.
October 20th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Dear CK:
I know of no one, nor have I ever heard of anyone, who is pro-abortion.
I am sorry, but your arguments are nothing short of ludicrous and reveal an uninformed mind.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Wow, all these scheming ulterior motives for Powell to pick Obama. Had McCain gone with somebody other than Palin, J Mack may have gotten his vote. Lets face it, of all the things the GOP represents and has done, this is by far the biggest negative.