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Friday the 29th of March 2024 03:57:25 PM

October 19, 2008

Stumble It!General Powell Endorses Barack Obama

Filed under: Politics — Eric Ptak @ 8:12 pm

There’s a lot of stupidity that is going on in this year’s Presidential campaign. On the right, people are calling Barack Obama a terrorist, a nigger, a Muslim, an elitist, and other things not so nice. On the left, people are calling McCain old, Grampy McSame, mean, callous, erratic, and other things not so nice. That’s why I was looking forward to hearing former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell endorse Sen. Barack Obama. He was always a very reasoned man, a man who commanded respect, and one whom I felt would give a very reasoned analysis of who he feels would be the best next President. It was quite the endorsement, indeed.

I must preface this by saying that I have had, since his introduction to the public eye during the First Gulf War, a great deal of respect for Gen. Powell. He is an intelligent and articulate former soldier who rose from the slums of NYC to become a highly respected international figure. He epitomizes how far the military has come in embodying the hope of ridding our culture of the scourge of racism: that anyone, regardless of race, color or creed, can reach for and attain some of the highest offices available. I remember how, in 1996, there was talk of Gen. Powell being nominated for President. Had he been nominated, I’d have probably voted for him rather than Clinton and his second term. Who Gen. Powell is and who he has become says more about the USA and what we all aspire to be, than anything else I have seen in a long time. My respect for him comes in spite of the fact that he was in the Army, and I was in the Marines.

I was walking through Tops, getting some grocery shopping done before the Bills’ game, when he came on the radio. Listening to him talk, I have to say that I got choked up a couple of times, and even had to wipe tears from my eyes at one point, as what he said sounded so powerful to me. At the start of the interview, his comparison of the time we are going through now to the time when I was growing up, when Nixon and Carter were our Presidents, started it off with a reasoned comparison. Then his comments that the economy is the first issue that needs to be addressed, then Iraq and Afghanistan and the need to reach out to the international community shows his knowledge of how important the USA is to the rest of the world, and how the rest of the world is also important to the USA. Then he spoke to education, energy, global warming and the environment,a nd the alleviation of poverty worldwide. Even if you didnt know who Gen. Powell was, simply from the first few minutes of the interview you could see how intelligent a man he is, and how multi-faceted his approach to the Presidency is.

I was glad that Tom Brokaw let him speak for quite a long time without interruption, as he explained his reasons for his endorsement. Gen. Powell spoke for what felt like 10 minutes, detailing the background and the thinking behind his endorsement decision. One of the most powerful statements he made was when he was talking about what is wrong with the Republican Party today, and the racist and anti-Muslim platform it seems to be espousing:

Now, I understand what politics is all about. I know how you can go after one another, and that’s good. But I think this goes too far. And I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for. And I look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign and they trouble me. And the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that’s what we’d be looking at in a McCain administration. I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that, within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

It was when he spoke of Army Spc. Kareem Khan that I got choked up. Maybe it was because of my military experience, knowing that in the Marines, it doesn’t matter what your race, color or creed is, it matters that you are a Marine. Maybe it was because of the places I went to school, and the friends I have had over the years, most of which were not white, Anglo-Saxon, or Protestant. Maybe it was because of the fact that some of the women I have dated in my life were not Caucasian. Maybe it was because of the the number of people I have worked with over the years who were as diverse racially as the world is. Maybe it was because of the number of people I have known over the years who have given their lives for our country, and their families. It doesn’t matter, because it was a powerful image that Gen. Powell painted, and it is a powerful statement to make, that we as Americans should not discriminate against someone because they have a different religious value system than we hold for ourselves.

So his choice is made, and it is the same as my choice. I think that, as prominent a public figure as Gen. Powell is, and the fact that he is a Republican through and through, his endorsement of Barack Obama will move a lot of votes into that column. His stinging criticism of the Republican Party and how it has narrowed and become somewhat insular, will cause much analysis and discussion on the news channels, and a great deal of self-analysis amongst party leaders. Nevertheless, I would not be surprised if, by the week’s end, Obama had a significant double-digit lead in the polls, close to 20 percent. I would not be surprised if, after this endorsement, many Southern states with high populations of active and former military personnel swing over to the Obama side of the spectrum.

I’ve had the feeling for quite some time that Obama would win the election. I think that Gen. Powell’s endorsement will have the effect of sealing the deal, and make this outcome inevitable.

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