Sunday, October 19, 2008
Colin Powell Endorses Obama
Obama had another busy week, campaigning all over New York and Missouri. As is tradition, he and Senator McCain took a night off to relax and trade jokes at the Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner. For one night, there was "no other crowd [he] would rather be palling around with." The next day, it was back on the campaign trail, and the Democratic nominee was boosted by both an endorsement from Colin Powell and a record $150 million in fundraising in September. Powell was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations, as well as President George W. Bush's Secretary of State. With only two weeks to the election, the Obama campaign is bombarding the airwaves with advertising, including ads in popular video games such as Madden '09 and Burnout Paradise.
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6 comments:
Wouldn't it be a great bold statement for Obama to choose Powell as his Sec. of State. The man has the chops, and it is a pity that such a potent mind has been doused by the unctuous filth or misinforming the UN. Dimon, Powell, and NOT Rick Wagoner/Bob Nardelli = my big three. As for Sec. of Def, I am all ears.
Also, congratulations to Obama for raising $650 million over the course of his entire campaign. Folks, this is gross. However, the notion that a person needs a sum of money greater than the GDP of several nations to (maybe) win the election is nauseating.
I dunno about you guys, but I personally would ban all political television ads, as well as all drug television ads...There is no reason why scientific medical ideosyncracies should be sold to people as if they were Hershey's kisses. Please let doctors do the prescribing.
Yes, this may lead to more online ads, but granted that the net inherently relatively unregulated, well, feel free to have a fun campaign in that realm.
It would definitely be nice to see Obama extend overtures about a cabinet position to Powell, who helped engineer the successful Gulf War and brings a level of military clout that the Democratic Party has lacked in recent years. And the so-called "Powell Doctrine" seems to be a good mindset with which to recover from 8 years of strategic and public relations failures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Doctrine. However, Obama would no doubt encounter some measure of resistance from his party at a time when he can ill afford any dissent. It will be interesting to see what he decides.
I disagree with you both. Powell's endorsement is a great asset to Obama because he is the most respected Republican to do so. But Powell is still damaged goods from serving as Sec of State during the Iraq War, and he's almost as old as McCain. I think Obama is taking the right direction in saying that he will be relying on Powell's advice without stating a cabinet position for him. Another possibility, as mentioned by Tom Brokaw on "Meet the Press," is having Powell work as an at-large ambassador to some great issue, like development in Africa.
I do agree with Samir on the ridiculous cost of these campaigns. But is there any way to stop it, or even slightly plug the hole? Perhaps if he wins, Obama will go on fundraising to pay for the bailout.
Surprisingly the new George W. Bush movie, "W", in my opinion portrayed Colin Powell in an extremely good light, which heightened my respect for the man. While I acknowledge that this is a movie depiction of the former secretary of State, this could resonate well with the general public, making a potential cabinet position for Powell better received. It was slightly ironic that the two days after the movie came out Powell gave his endorsement to Obama.
On a side note, the whole idea of having the candidates continue to fundraise after the election for government purposes seems like an extremely clever idea! Although I'm not sure how much time the President would be able to allot to fundraising.
I think that for Republican candidates to stand a chance in future elections they really need to be more like Colin Powel in the sense that he is a reformist member of the GOP. Although a article I read recently (and sadly could not find again) suggested that Powel would no longer be accepted by the Republican party due to his shifting political stance and reformist mood, I believe that it would be very beneficial to accept and use Powel's new stances. They've tried the ultr-conservative method - and it didn't work, so its time for change.
Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/emma-rubysachs/colin-powell-a-reformed-s_b_150965.html
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