Griper Blade: Powell, McCain, Division, and Hate

In conversation, I've called Colin Powell a "politician in rehab." He was instrumental in bringing us to war with Iraq, despite any reservations he later claimed to have. The time to stop a disaster is before it happens, rather than after. Shaking your head in disapproval when it all goes to hell doesn't actually do anything all that helpful.

Still, Powell enjoys a measure of respect that few, if any, former Bush administration officials share. Justly or unjustly, Powell is seen by many Americans as "the good one" from Bush's first term.

So it is that Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama is seen as perhaps being more influential than most. Newspaper endorsements, celebrity endorsements, endorsements from colleagues; these generally don't do much to change people's minds. Not that they're totally without benefit -- each endorsement is a news story and all of these stories keep the endorsed candidate in TV news rotation. It counts for something, maybe a bump, but beyond that, probably not much else.

But Powell's endorsement came with an indictment. And that's what's going to hurt. He slammed McCain as erratic and scattershot, displaying no leadership during the credit crisis as he ran from gimmick to gimmick, trying to exploit it for political gain. He tore into his selection of Sarah Palin as not being prepared to become president -- which, as Powell put it, was almost the only job the VP's required to do.

But it was the ugliness of McCain's campaign that really got Powell's attention. While the press has been reporting some of it, it's hard to get them to go in depth. The media seems to believe that they have to find something just as bad from the Obama camp before they'll report on something from the McCain camp. Of course, this leads to false equivalencies and it downplays the outrageousness of McCain supporters by comparing it with things that, when you get right down to it, aren't all that bad. If some McCain supporter calls Obama a Muslim terrorist, some Obama supporter makes fun of McCain's age. Not really the same sort of thing...

[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]