Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama is the best thing to happen this late in the campaign...

[Solon]

because it appeals most strongly with those who were duped into believing the Bush Administration lie about Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction. Most of these people, not the "true believers" who will vote Republican no matter what, but the swing voters, moderates, if you will, are who Powell appeals to the most because they can absolve themselves of their own duplicity in supporting the war by looking to him and saying: "Look, even the Secretary of State was duped into this war!"

Of course, reality is even uglier than this, the fact is that, soon after 9/11, many reasonable people took complete leave of their senses and pretty much just went along with whatever the Bush Administration wanted, including believing many of its lies, this being one of them. They suspended their critical thinking skills because they wanted security, at all costs, I've seen this change in many people IRL, and frankly it was scary for quite a long time. It took them years for reality to settle in, but many snapped out of it and felt ashamed by it, at least those with consciences.

The question, that I think no one knows with 100% certainty is whether Colin Powell knew he was being fed a line of bullshit and decided to play along anyways. We know now that the intelligence was contradictory, and I'm assuming that as Secretary of State, Colin Powell had access to all this intelligence. Given this, his infamous presentation to the U.N. shouldn't have happened the way it did. If the man had any honor at all, he would have simply said that the U.S. didn't know with any certainty that Saddam had any WMDs, and that more investigation and intelligence is warranted.

This wouldn't have stopped Bush, of course, he wanted a war, at any cost, but Colin Powell had a choice as to whether or not to play along, and frankly, he made the wrong one. Could he have stopped the war? No, of course not, but that doesn't excuse his own part in this crime of aggression that Bush perpetuated.

I'm frankly appalled at the PRAISE that Colin Powell has being heaped upon him on this board for endorsing Obama. As I said, the endorsement isn't a problem, I just would prefer it was an endorsement from inside a jail cell. This isn't an ideal world, where justice prevails, so we just have to live within the world we live in. Yeah, this endorsement helps Obama, and that's a good thing, but it does not change any facts about Powell's lack of character.

[TexasProgresive]

1. What an October surprize! n/t