Powells bizare endorsement of Obama.

It is difficult to understand why Colin Powell would endorse the Democrats, why they would want him to, other than as another high profile endorsee, or how he will actually fit in there. Powell has had a fairly distinguished career over many years including National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State, and was mooted as a Republican challenger to Clinton in 96 but turned it down. Along with substantial military service this is no small achievement.

Interestingly, his senior administrative appointments were all given to him by Republican Presidents, Reagan, Bush Snr. and George W Bush.

The Democrats claim to be against the Iraq war, and insist that they were mislead by the Bush administration. Powell as Secretary of State would have to take some responsibility for this if it were the case and if in fact they were mislead as they claim, he was in a position to be part of the misleading. Is this the sort of man they really want?

Who can forget the sterling service he performed assuring the UN that there could be no doubt that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more? He also claimed that there was no doubt in his mind that Hussein was working to produce nuclear weapons.

His value to Obama as an advisor has to be seriously questioned as his assessment of ‘the surge’ was about as wrong as you can get.

On CBS’s Face the Nation in December 2006 Powell said he did not support surging tens of thousands more troops in Iraq, a plan that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) supported and that President Bush was at the time expected to carry out and did. “I have not seen a case that persuades me that [Iraqi security] would be better” with more forces, he said.

McCain has insisted ever since the invasion that there should be more troops in Iraq against stiff resistance, finally getting his way and has been vindicated by the result. Powell has been proven dead wrong on this issue. The disturbing thing about this is that for much of this time Powell, who opposed the idea of more troops, had the ear of the President as his Secretary of State and thus may have been responsible for the pre-surge debacle.

It is difficult to see how he will fit in with the Democrats; successful black people tend to be frowned on apart from those who use the welfare system and class hatred to keep the rest down on the Democrat welfare plantation. Powell was one of the successes, along with Condi, and others who were criticized by the ‘mentor’ Rev Wright. Prominent Obama supporters, Al Sharpton and Harry Belafonte have referred to Powell and Rice as “house Negroes.”

This is not a new phenomena, President Lyndon Johnson is said to have made the comment about MLK, "That goddamn nigger preacher may drive me out of the White House."

Powell’s reasons for endorsing Obama seem a little odd. Powell called Obama a "transformational figure" in the nation's history, which given that he has done little other than run for president seems a strange assessment.

His expression of disappointment in the negative tone of McCain's campaign, indicates that he has fallen for the Obama rhetoric, McCain has been critical of the Obama campaign, but hell it is an election and no candidate has ever won an election by approving of every point in his opponents portfolio. The Obama campaign has been totally negative throughout the campaign.

He doesn’t like the choice of Palin as a running mate as he feels that she is too inexperienced. Rather weird, given that Palin has far more experience than the candidate he is endorsing for President.

The decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers upsets him as "it goes too far." Get over it Colin, that’s a cop out and you know it. What sort of National Security Advisor would not be disturbed at the thought of an associate of at least two known terrorists (Ayers and Dorn) becoming President.

I disagree with the focus on Ayers, as they should also be mentioning all of his other unsavory connections.