Could Colin Powell back Barack Obama?

This video suggests that he might.  Although a registered Republican and George W Bush's first Secretary of State, General Powell speaks highly of the Illinois Senator's personal qualities.  Powell also emphasises the need to restore America's standing in the world - a key Democrat theme.

Comments

[Tony Makara]

How could Powell, a man who at one time couldn't decide whether to join the democrats or the republicans, a naked careerist, a man who openly lied before the UN about Iraq having WMDs have anything in common with a man who was opposed to the war? and who correctly predicted the cost of an Iraq invasion when he said it would "require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences" I am not a fan of Obama, I do not think he has enough to be president, but he was right on Iraq, Powell by contrast held a hypocritical stance over the war and his backing of Obama would be equally two-faced. There is also the very real danger that Powell backing Obama could be seen as being racial politics.

[rightsideforum]

Powell, didn't 'lie', there is absolutely no proof that he did. The fact you would accuse a patriot of doing so is an absolute disgrace Tony.

Politically speaking, he's never been a 'Republican' on anything other than foreign affairs, although more moderate than the Bush admin.

He's not popular with Republicans because of his behavior since he served in the Bush admin.

He wouldn't dream of endorsing a democrat however, especially is McCain wins the nomination.

[Tony Makara]

rightsideforum, the whole cabal lied over Iraq and WMDs, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Powell. Most of the world accepts that now, apart from apologists for the invasion who seem to think Saddam hid his WMDs so skillfully that the best brains in the US military couldn't find them. I don't know about you but I don't like being lied to, especially when British servicemen end up dying as a result. I don't trust Colin Powell as far as I could spit him, he is duplicitous and if he snuggles up to Obama it will confirm everything I've always thought about him.

[mamapajamas]

Tony, if ANYONE in the Bush Administration "lied" about WMDs, so did the entire rest of the world. If you will recall, there were 17 (count 'em!) SEVENTEEN UN Security Council resolutions, all passed unanimously, on that very topic. The entire UN "knew" Saddam had WMDs, since that's what each nation's OWN intellegence agencies were saying. The ONLY difference the nations in the UN had on the topic was WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.

So how come the Bush Administration were the only one's on earth who "lied", while everyone else was merely "mistaken"????

Sorry, but you're NOT talking to people with the typical 2-week memory span of the liberal!

[Tony Makara]

mamapajamas, not everyone was fooled by the excuses cooked up for war with Iraq, not me, not the million plus people who protested against the war in London, not the Russians or the Chinese or most of Europe. The reality is that Bush and the NeoCons wanted war with Iraq and used whatever excuse they thought would play at the time, after all that is why the US led coalition went into Iraq, to look for the so-called WMDs which its clear didn't exist at the time. When it was clear to the world that the WMDs were never going to be found suddenly the story changed to the invasion being about regime change in the name of democracy. About justice for the Kurds etc. All this from a president who pre-invasion offered Saddam safe passage out of Iraq if he agreed to leave peacefully irrespective of how he had treated the Kurds. We are straying off the Powell/Obama topic here but it just goes to show the mess that Iraq is and the mess it will continue to be because Colin Powell and others like Tony Blair were compliant tools in war that was waged as part of long held NeoCon geopolitical objectives..

[Malcolm Dunn]

Bush and his people may or may not have lied mamapajamas ,they may have been merely mistaken.Powell seems like an honourable man and even though his 'presentation' turned out to be complete garbage,it may have been just be a genuine mistake. One person who did lie however beyond any possible doubt was the sleazeball's sleazeball, Tony Blair (45 minutes, dodgy dossier etcetc)! And he's got away with it! Even now he's planning to become 'President' of Europe!God help us all!

[mamapajamas]

Malcolm, I appreciate that. I'd like to see MORE people dropping the "Bush lied" meme. The fact is, if Bush lied, so did everyone else.

Period.

So why is he singled out?

[mamapajamas]

Tony, the war in Iraq was about Saddam's Caliph ambitions. The "cooked up" reasons... and remember, there were FIVE of them, not just WMDs... were simply additional reasons to take him out.

[Edward]

Sounds more like he's pitching to build up McCain (eyeing a role as his veep?) to me.

[davod]

Powell's State Department's most disgusting mistake (if indeed it was a mistake)was to push the meme that the liberation of Iraq from Sadaam's tryrany was in fact an occupation. That, and the foisting on the coalition and Iraq, of the Coalition Provisional Authority, due to State Department intransigence (they didn't, or wouldn't, get their act together) turned the short war into what transpired.

[Steven D. Brown]

I for one cannot just let Powell off the hook, just because he left the Cheney Adm.

All of those years of service, and he didn't have the judgment to know this was a scam from the word go.

It is costing us billions as a Country, and for anyone to think this War has any validity is just out of their mind for real, and it shows with thousands dead, from this Country, and Millions more gone for what!

[JT HUNT]

It seems to me Powell is forced into the "black vote" It is surmised he should vote black because of his heritage. Why do blacks expect this upon one another? Why do they scream racism if "whites" don't vote for blacks claiming they wion't BECUASE they are black? It's strange how they think -- stranger how they want to force a societal rule based on color of skin. Colin Powell is a liar, just like bush--would want him to vote for them?