Why the Powell Endorsement (Could) Matter
 

From the Washington Post of 17 Oct 2008:

Well, he did come out for Obama. I explained here in the "Military Polls" thread what my impressions were.

In short, Powell, besides being a black general, is a moderate Republican intellectual icon. His defection mirrors the defection or abstention of a large number of conservative intellectuals who think a liberal intellectual would be better than a conservative wedded to the current Republican base.

It was a great interview. I recommend everyone catch the repeats of "Meet the Press". Or just watch it here.

BTW, McCain will take the high road on this, but watch for what happens with the 'red meat' Republicans. The smart ones will refrain from trying to tear down Powell, but as I mentioned earlier, there are less and less smart ones left.

He's very convincing, in fact Powell convinced me there were WMD in Iraq with his speech to the UN.

Facts he was not sure were even acurate. And after it came out that they were not he was truely pissed off. Of all the previous Bush appointments I have the highest respect for him and Paul O'Neil, I can't remember her name, Dee Myers??? the first press sec?

Well, it's going to be a bloodbath tomorrow when the surrogates attack his credibility, service, etc. The politicians will be bad enough, but I can just imagine Hannity and ilk:(.

I can already hear Coulter screaming "Treason".

Powell was one of the few Whitehouse figures that I had/have respect for out of the last eight years. He was one of the ones that made me think (until I heard Blix interviewed) Saddam might have weapons of mass destruction. he must have been so fucking annoyed when he realised he'd been given shitty intelligence.

Of all of them, he was one of the few I genuinely believe and believed had no knowledge of the dishonesty of those reports.

More likely he knew he was lying.

Colin Powell had a dinner meeting with George Jr, Laura, and Condi Rice. He knew the president was going to war no matter what. Therefore he told the president that as Sec of State, he was required to make the president's case before the UN. IOW Powel had commited to making the case for war regardless of facts.

When he went to the CIA, he spent 14 hour days all week looking for those facts. If those facts were 'slam dunk', then everything could have been obtained in a day. But proof after proof presented to Powell was found lacking or obviously a lie.

When Powel gave that UN speech, I felt so sorry for him. Presented facts had already been found wanting by responsible sources. If those were the best he could do, then clearly, justification for war did not exist.

I specifically remember thinking this poor man has been blindsided by the administration. As a good soldier, he was following orders. Of course, the world did not buy his speech either. Even Canada and Mexico did not believe him.

I always had respect for Powel. It was obvious that he did not have facts in his UN speech.

BTW, posted by tw on 30 Dec 2001: In Nov 2002, when Iraq had not yet been invaded, this post was rejected by an apparent majority. Predictions based in known facts were, unfortunately, too accurate: That post was not a lucky guess. It was based in facts.

The fear was "no light at the end of the tunnel". $10billion a month and still no solution. Meanwhile the justified war will probably continue for upwards of 10 years because we invaded Iraq, did not phase four planning in Afghanistan (either), and all but protected bin Laden.

Powell said both McCain and Obama are competent. Powel is quite clear where his criticisms are directly. Not with McCain, other than McCain lets the problem exist. Some quotes from Powell's "Meet the Press" interview: The last statement is a publically correct way of calling her incompetent for the job and an example of a party moving even more extremist right.

Powel criticizes the Republican Party leadership - McCain's biggest problem.

NY Times provided an example of McCain's problem - the extremists that must be part of his campaign. As we all know, Chalabi was a con artist who rose to power by supporting or even creating George Jr administration lies about Saddam and WMDs. He was lying so often that only those with a political agenda (rather than working for America) could have believed Chalabi. And yet Scheunemann, an example of that extremist political agenda, joins Karl Rove's people and Carly Fiorina to lead the McCain campaign.

Powell also praises Obama for his abilities to learn, inspire, comprehend, and lead. Powell uses the word "transformational".

McCain's largest problem is attributed to his right wing extremist party.

Then he is definitely not a trustworthy person to listen to for an endorsement.

McCain says he has the endorsement of over 200 former generals and admirals. Does anyone know where I can find a list of these supporters

On his website.

Lil more help there blue - I couldn't find them on his site either.

One interesting note though.

Comparing their myspace pages - McCain has less than 200,000 "friends" While Obama has about 750,000. Also looking at his page further confirms that he seems completely out of touch with anyone under 55. Obama has an infinitely more user friendly, visually appealing page.

As someone who works on a Big Ten College campus, and sees the support that Democrats get here, and knows the likelyhood that a 20 something vs. a 30 or 40 something person would have or visit a myspace page, this does not surprise me.


This worries me too. I want to vote for him, but he is making it very hard.

Um, no? muahahaha

Seriously though, that's a bad thing for him. They should fix that.

I found it by googling "McCain list of military endorsers," found a fun little site called stoptheaclu.com, then clicked on their link leading to the press release on his campaign site.

Here ya go Sarge

McCain list of military endorsers

Powell did what any good soldier would have done in his position. He committed to making that speech regardless of what the facts were - as defined by the dinner with George Jr, Laura, and Condi Rice. Powell had no choice. Powell is not under orders to endorse Obama.

Of the thousands of retired admirals and generals, he could only get 300 endorsements?

Curiously missing on that list are a long list of Generals who have served in "Mission Accomplished" and then retired.

Thank you for the link. That is quite an impressive list. I just wish Hal Moore's name was on it

Then he is definitely not a trustworthy person to listen to for an endorsement.

Retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell is obviously a freedom hating terrorist.

Impressive? Just about every American military commander that has done anything of significance is not on McCain's list. Collected a list of every military commander I could find that served and were significant in "Mission Accomplished", Desert Storm, Operation Provide Comfort, Iraq Study Group, 911 Commission, Joint Chiefs, Katrina, and just about anything else of significance in the past decade. Not one General or Admiral is on McCain's support list. These are Generals and Admirals that actually led units into combat, were fully involved in responding to 11 September, were involved in the many analysis groups including the Iraq Study Group or Duelfer Report, or had some other major decisions or actions that resulted in major news events. IOW if the commander did something of significance, he is probably listed below:
Abizaid, Hawkins, Warden, Gardner, Kimmons, Batiste, Casey, Sharp, Schwartz, Myers, Jones (James), Nash, Franks (neither Generals Fred nor Tommy), Pace, Miller, Honore, McKiernan, Hooker, Zinni, Kellogg, Newbold, Shinseki, Sanchez, Eikenberry, Fast, Swannack, Jumper, Dempsey, Karpinski, Chiarelli, Marks, Clark (Adm Vern), Shelton, Dayton, Fry (Scott), Hayden, Wald, Giambastiani, Conway, Peterson, Zilmer, Scowcroft, Keane, Schultz, Ralston, Ellis (Adm Jim), Sullivan, Taguba, Kern, Hill (Gen Paul), Arnold, Eberhart, Wherley, Canavan, Schoomaker, Boykin, Gration, Minihan, McKinley, Steele, Jeremiah, Leidig, Abbot, Wilson, Schwarzkopf, Johnson (Gen Robert B), Waller, Dugan, Grogan, McPeak, McConnell, Wickham, Meyer, Horner, Glosson, Arthur, Boomer, Yeosock, Schwarz, Gabriel, Olsen, Pagonis, Hoar, Shalikashvili, Saint, Crowe, Gray, and Fallon.

Not a single commander is on McCain's list of supporters.

Karpinski?? Nobody wants that endorsement.

Here is a list of Obama's military supporters but it sure looks like they didn't do anything meaningful either, only one of them is on your list:

• John Adams, Brigadier General US Army (Ret), Former Deputy US Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee [243]
• Clifford Alexander, Jr., former Secretary of the Army[189]
• Susan Ahn Cuddy, first female gunner officer in the U.S. Navy and daughter of Korean Independence fighter Ahn Chang-ho[244]
• Wesley Clark, former General, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, 2004 presidential candidate[57]
• Tom Daniels, Texas Air National Guard[189]
• Richard Danzig, former Secretary of the Navy[189]
• Larry Gillespie, Brigadier General (Ret), Assistant Deputy Commanding General, (ARNG) Army Material Command[245]
• Scott Gration Major General (USAF-Ret), former Director of Strategy, Policy, and Assessments of the United States European Command in Germany[245]
• Donald Joseph Guter, former Judge Advocate General of the Navy, current Dean, Duquesne University School of Law, Pittsburgh[189][245]
• Richard D. Hearney, former Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps[189]
• John Hutson, former Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy[246]
• Jeh Johnson, former General Counsel of the U.S. Air Force[189]
• Lester Lyles, former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force[189]
• David 'Dave' McGinnis, Brigadier General (Ret), former Chief of Staff of the National Guard Association of the U.S.[245]
• Merrill A. McPeak, four star General (Ret), former Secretary of the United States Air Force during Operation Desert Storm, [245][247][248]
• John B. Nathman (Ret), former Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and Vice Chief of Naval Operations[189][245]
• F. Whitten Peters, former Secretary of the Air Force[189]
• Hugh Robinson, Major General (Ret), Commander of the Southwestern Division[245]
• James Smith, Brigadier General (USAF-Ret), former Commander, Joint Warfighting Center, U.S. Joint Forces Command, Joint Training Analysis and Simulation Center[189][245]
• Robert 'Willie' Williamson Rear Admiral (USN-Ret), served as military Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition and Director, Office of Program Appraisal.
• Ralph Wooten Major General (Ret), former Commanding General of the Army’s Chemical Arsenal, currently the Executive Vice President of Management Systems, Inc.[245]

I've always felt that retired flag rank officers that make endorsements are just attention seeking whores.

And for the record, having Merrill McPeak endorse a candidate should actually remove credibility points.