Powell endorses Obama?

Colin Powell, a man I rather respect, made a political endorsement this morning. Naturally, I hopped over to the YouTubes to find the substance of his endorsement. Here's the video; below are my comments.



This whole Ayres nonsense is nothing more than a distraction. No one in their right mind could claim that a sitting US senator is really in league with terrorists out to destroy America, but that seems to be what we're being told. Further, when the McCain campaign spells out what they mean, it's clear they're screaming about tangental associations at best.

When Powell mentioned the bits about `Obama is an Arab/Muslim,` he really struck home with me. This has been bothering me for a while. On one hand, I'm glad McCain corrected the lady when she said `Obama is an Arab, and that scares me,` but on the other... the better response would be `even if he is, so what?`

The bit about two more conservative supreme court nominations - eh. I would agree with him only insofar as he means socially conservative folk on the Evangelical Protestant Band Wagon. Otherwise, we'll part company here.

We're still not in good company when he started on about McCain's economic plan. With what I learned about economics in my college years, I'm not terribly enamoured with either of their plans. To say a man confidently heading down the wrong path is better than one moving erratically down the wrong path scarcely grasps the magnitude of the problem in the leadership.

When he said `all towns have value,` that was much better, though. Fairbanks' size depends on who you are. If you're an Alaskan, it's the big city. If you're in the lower 48, Fairbanks is a middling town at best, and that's to put it generously (doubly so when you realize 1/4th to 1/3rd of the town is transient military personnel and their families).

I think of Fairbanks as more to the larger end of the spectrum, but I like to think we have values too. So does Salt Lake City. New York City. Detroit. Even Salem. To say the over half of the country that lives in an urban area that their values don't matter is a bit of a slap in the citizenry's face. It definitely shows that they're less interested in doing well by all Americans than they are in placating their `base.`