Reply #41

That illustrates the different way that the black community views many issues and people.

According to your assessment, Powell was a 'turncoat' his entire career simply by being Colin Powell and standing for what he did. But then when he switched sides (i.e., became an actual turncoat), he's finally viewed as NOT being a turncoat. It's an interesting way of looking at it because it places his race and not his military/political career at the center of his identity. I never saw him like that at all. To me, he was never 'Colin, the black man who sold out' but 'Colin, the Republican/Chairman of the Joint Cheifs/SOS who happened to be black.'

Although I do believe he was moving towards his 2008 switch for many years. He lambasted civilian hawks in his 1995 autobiography and also slammed the Republican party on racial issues during his speech at the 1996 Republican convention. He (allegedly) opposed the Iraq War in private and apparently did not get along with some of his fellow cabinet members. So it wasn't all that surprising when he didn't come back for Bush's second term and later endorsed Obama in 2008.