Powell's Redemption, sort of

I saw Powell's the press conference after he was on MTP. His contempt for the McCain campaign was palpable. He talked about how horribly we are viewed in the world when people see the exchange between that woman at a McCain rally and McCain about being a Muslim. McCain's answer was "...No, he's a family man." Powell said, Obama is a Christian, but shouldn't matter if he was Muslim, he's an American. He went on about the campaign and how the superficial negative attacks on Obama and the obvious unsuitability of Palin as a VP candidate were a contributing factor in his endorsement. I then watched MTP where he said many of the same things, as well as talking about Obama as being a transformational candidate. During his MTP appearance he talked quite movingly about seeing a grieving mother at Arlington and that there was no cross or Star of David on his tombstone, but the Mulism holy symbol. The conventional wisdom is that endorsements don't matter; however, I think this one does. Partly because of the pain that the endorsement was causing Powell, but mainly because of his blistering indictment of the McCain campaign and the Republican party. He was ballistic about McCain going on about Ayers when we were involved in two wars and the economy is in the toilet. He said things that most politicians are afraid to say, ie What is wrong with being a Muslim? But the depth of he distress about the direction his party has taken and their empty policies was a quite an indictment. The other thing about the Powell endorsement was that even thought he was critical of the McCain campaign, he was extremely positive about Obama. He described him as a transformational candidate who was the right candidate for the time. (I labeled the post redemption, sort of because of Powell's unwillingness to dissociate himself from the Bush administration until now, not to mention he was party to getting us involved in the disastrous WAR in Iraq. Redemption takes more than one act, but his endorsement has set him on the righteous path.)