Colin Powell's New Best Friend

Gee, a black political figure endorsing Obama..there's something unique for you!

As predicted, Colin Powell pulled the trigger for the Chosen One. This has probably been in the works for quite some time, but Powell obviously co-ordinated his announcement with the campaign for maximum impact.

Or maybe the negotiations just needed to be finalized, if you know what I mean. Let's see what kind of position Powell ends up with if Obama gets in.

While endorsing his new best friend on 'Meet The Press', Obama took shots at the 'negative tone' of the McCain campaign:

Powell also said he was “troubled” by Republican personal attacks on Obama, especially false intimations that Obama was Muslim and Republicans’ recent focus on Obama’s alleged connections to William Ayers, the founder of the radical ’60 Weather Underground.

('alleged'???)

Stressing that Obama was a lifelong Christian, Powell denounced Republican tactics that he said were insulting not only to to Obama but also to Muslims.

“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.

“I look at these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said. “Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.”

Now, far be it from me to question Powell's integrity, but when has the McCain campaign ever insinuated that Obama is a Muslim? Lots of Americans rightfully question why Obama, who obviously once was a Muslim in his early years would lie about it, and his intimate connections to Islamists, the Saudis and the Nation of Islam are certainly fair game, but he's obviously not a practicing Muslim now. The McCain Campaign never intimated that he was,although I would argue that no one who sat in Trinity United for two decades and listened to the racist spew of Jeremiah Wright could be characterized as a 'Christian'.

Powell pulled off another funny by lashing out at Sarah Palin, saying “I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States” and telling the talking heads at 'Meet The Press' that McCain's pick of Palin caused him to question McCain's judgment.

Like Obama has the resume and experience to be president, General? Whom do you think you're zoomin'?

Powell also had a couple of nasty remarks to make about those nasty conservative appointments to the Supreme Court....he'd prefer Obama's ultra-Left appointments.

Of course, as Powell went out of his way to point out, this isn't about race...nuh-uh, no way! Even if that's not quite what he was saying before.

Rush Limbaugh, as usual, has the right of it "OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."

Actually, this is only a little bit about race, but it is more about Colin Powell wanting to do what advances Colin Powell.

He's always been like that.

When the GOP controlled Washington, he sucked up to them and the Republicans stoo-pidly rewarded him as the poster boy proof of See-We're-Not-All-Racists even though his military career was at best indifferent and well, political. So Powell and the GOP used each other.

Powell's stint on MTP was a bunch of unchallenged Obama talking points, and as I said the timing was obviously coordinated with the Obama campaign. Watch and see if he doesn't become a special envoy or ambassador of some sort.

This is a particularly spiteful little betrayal coming from Powell, who's been close to McCain for years and who has personally benefited from his associations with all those nasty conservatives. But not... unexpected.

After all, this is the man who allowed Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney to take the flak for the failed Iraq occupation and nation building strategy Powell and Clinton holdover George Tenet came up with, even though Powell and Tenet's plan won out over Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were pushing for the exact opposite..and Powell never said a word.

UPDATE: McCain admitted today to being surprised that Colin Powell didn't even bother calling him first to let him know Powell was jumping on board the Obama express. He shouldn't have been.