Monday, October 20, 2008

Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama for President...

The big political news this weekend wasn’t that Sarah Palin was able to bob her hands up and down while Amy Poehler rapped on SNL, but that General Colin Powell, a former Secretary of State for George W. Bush and possible running mate for Sen. John McCain, has officially endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President on Sunday’s edition of Meet The Press.



For those of you not fully understanding of what this means, let me put it to you in the most clear cut way. A lifelong Republican and highly decorated veteran and longtime advisor to the GOP, Powell has worked within the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush throughout the Gulf War and most recently was Secretary of State during Bush’s first term. He has been a possible Presidential candidate many times, in 1996, 2000 and 2008, and was believed to be a running mate for John McCain once he secured his party’s nomination earlier this year. The man is not only one of our most respected leaders, but most recently he was widely touted as a maverick after dispelling the myth of WMDs before the invasion of Iraq and unfortunately while too late in the game, spoke out against Bush’s decision to go to war with Iraq in 2003. It is surprising that Powell would not only deviate from his party, but would oppose the election of his long time friend, John McCain, for President. Monday, Barack Obama has said that he would appreciate Gen. Powell to become an advisor within his administration and that an official position would be available if Powell would be so interested.

What’s more significant in this whole endorsement was the plethora of reasons Powell gave for SUPPORTING Obama. He stated that the candidate being elected would not only be “electrifying” for the American public, but that the Senator from Illinois was a candidate for a new age and a new direction. This endorsement came on the heels of the news that Barack Obama and Joe Biden raised $150 Million in support of their campaign in September alone, which is now the largest pull for any political campaign and it more than doubled his last record fund raising month of August. The overall momentum of the campaign has shifted and Obama’s fund raising efforts are being lauded as transitional for all political campaigns in the future, with the public’s money truly supporting their candidate and the methods that were used to gain the additional funds.

0 Comments: