Academic

Enough! Powell Endorses Obama

By Sherrilyn Ifill

Colin Powell?s endorsement of Barack Obama marks the beginning of the end of the extreme right?s control of the Republican Party.  Cross-party endorsements are always powerful.  But it wasn?t just that Powell endorsed Obama.  Powell?s decision to break ranks with John McCain, his friend, was a full-on denunciation of the disastrous course of the Republican Party.  It was a call to arms for Republican centrists who, either by their silence, or their failed strategy of public support and backroom denunciation, have allowed the delusional, incompetent right wing of the Party to bring our country and their Party to near-disaster.  Powell knows something about this.  He put his international reputation and his integrity on the line during that disastrous appearance before the U.N. in February 2003, making a case for war with Iraq on weak or manipulated ?intelligence.?  It was a case that neither President Bush nor Vice President Cheney had the international credibility to successfully advance on their own.  Powell?s reputation was just collateral damage in the determination of Bush and Cheney to make the war happen.  But Powell?s appearance on Meet the Press was nothing like the halting, overblown and flimsy brief he delivered for Bush and Cheney at the U.N. (a presentation I was disturbed to hear Powell defend, albeit tepidly, during the Meet the Press interview as well).  He demonstrated (without notes) and with great passion and eloquence, just how persuasive he can be when he?s delivering a message he believes in.  His brief in favor of a new direction in American foreign and domestic policy, his forceful and unequivocal rejection of anti-Muslim prejudice, and finally his acceptance of the need for generational change shook the Republican Party to its core, despite attempts by some Republicans to downplay it.

To his core Powell remains a soldier.  And like the good soldier that he is, he fell on the sword for his fellow centrists this weekend, courageously stepping forward to do the work shunned by too many in his Party.  Not that others haven?t tried ? former Treasury Secretary Paul O?Neill, former Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (R-RI), John Dilulio ? all have spoken courageously about the power excesses and intellectual limitations of this Administration.  But the vast majority of Party leaders who know better ? congressmen, former cabinet members and Party leaders, have mostly coasted the wave of Bush popularity, even as they knew that his policies would have disastrous consequences for Americans and for so many others around the world.  In any case, none of them has the weight inside and outside the Party as Colin Powell.  Yesterday Powell gave voice to the disappointment and frustration of many Republicans, the feeling ? intensified exponentially after the cynical nomination of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential candidate ? that enough is enough.  For the base of the Party ? the hard-right — Powell?s endorsement won?t make a difference.  But for those Republicans sitting on the fence this election, and for those within the Party who?ve despaired of what their Party?s become, Powell?s endorsement may be the first battle cry in a fight for the future of the Party.

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Full post as published by BlackProf on October 20, 2008 (boomark / email).