Colin Powell’s Support For Barack Obama – An Inside Look at the Republican Party’s Real Plans
I must admit that I find it a bit odd how much people are making a big deal of Colin Powell’s recent official endorsement for Barack Obama. True, they come from opposite sides of the political spectrum, but I think some thought needs to put into what Powell’s endorsement really indicates, not only about him but what I suspect includes many in the inner circles of the Republican party itself.
First of all, I find it pathetic that anyone is so ingrained in their political thinking that they can be so mindless as to just assume at the next election they will vote for a specific party. Granted, there are some issues which both sides have been known to historically support or fight against – abortion is a good example – and on those issues, it can be easy to see why some voters will automatically decide to vote for one party over another. However, there are times when our society faces more pressing issues that should obligate us to disregard such emotionally-charged issues in favour of assessing which party has the best platform or candidate to help our society overcome its current predicaments. But that takes a fair amount of rationalism and yes, intelligence on the part of the voter to understand what really is going to impact their lives and their family directly instead of focusing on issues that might bristle their own personal code of ethics or values.
From this perspective, Powell’s recent endorsement on the surface makes a lot of sense since it indicates that after looking at the two respective candidates, he’s decided to throw his support behind Obama – regardless of his being (gasp) a Democrat – because he honestly believes that Obama more than McCain can help the United States get out of this pit of quicksand they currently find themselves in and hopefully get back on to some solid ground. The general feeling people have about Powell is that he’s not only intelligent, but a straight-shooter so it makes sense that he should be able to look beyond the Republican/Democrat party line blinders and see the bigger picture and what needs to be done. But there’s more to his character than that which allowed him to rise to the prominent position of Secretary of State and I think it’s that part which reveals more about why he made this endorsement now and why I suspect many in the top tiers of the Republican leadership may not feel as betrayed as some of those neo-cons blasting Powell all over the Net claim to be.
To cut to the chase, I strongly believe that the Republican top leadership – that is to say those outside of the McCain team – are hoping that Obama will win this year’s election. Shocking? Outrageous? Laughable? Sure, on the surface. But again, this kind of thinking has less to do with emotionalism and notions of blind patriotism and more to do with pragmatism, tactics, and wielding power. The fact is the United States right now is in a complete mess – the economy is teetering on the brink of slipping into a depression, they are in a war that shows no end and no clear victories in sight, and they are trillions of dollars in debt and growing almost exponentially. And if that wasn’t enough, the United States influence on the world stage is diminishing dramatically, one reason why military intervention is often threatened since its become the only leverage the United States can claim and now, thanks to the Iraq war, even that is a pale version of what it once was.
So, like I said, the United States is a complete mess and the next president is going to inherit all this along with the expectations of the American public that he will fix it immediately so that they can go back to their carefree spending ways. Now that’s a tall order for either candidate to have to fulfill and I think most economists will agree, the current economic climate in the States will not be resolved in the next year or so. It’s going to be several years of crawling up out of the mire before the average American will feel that they are on some sort of semi-solid ground. That’s a pretty big, bitter pill to swallow and something the American public is not known for is patience and understanding. The Republicans surely know that and with someone like McCain, they must realize they have a slim chance of making a significant improvement on the current situation. That’s not to say that I think Obama would have far better success at it since I don’t, and I think the Republican party leadership has come to that conclusion as well. And that’s why it’s in the Republican party’s best interests to let this term go to the Democrats – since both candidates could only succeed marginally on solving most of these problems, it’s better to let the Democrats take on the burden and face the wrath of the American people that, despite assurances from the Democrats that change was coming, the amount of change they got wasn’t enough to improve their lives and their country.
The other gain the Republicans have through this campaign is that they finally gave McCain his chance to run as the Republican candidate for President and with his failure to win the job, they no longer need to worry about him running in the leadership race, tearing up the party votes and preventing them from showing to the general public a star candidate that they know can beat Obama at the next election. After all, the last thing the Republicans can afford is to have a race like the Democrats had this year between Obama and Clinton. So with McCain now taken care of, a smoother, tighter Republican machine can arise that can demonstrate to the American public that despite all the allegories to the Kennedy legacy, Obama just couldn’t deliver what the country needed and that they instead carry the goods.
And this is that part of Powell’s personality traits that explains his recent public endorsement of Obama – the man is a proven successful tactician. His endorsement of Obama was like the Bat signal, letting the party intellectuals know that the Republicans are tossing this election. Sounds crazy to think that any political party would throw a chance to lead, but as Powell knows, in any war there are many battles and some you have to give to your opponent if you want to win the war. Also, there’s no shame here for the Republicans if McCain loses. On the contrary, with someone like Sarah Palin on the ticket, they’re only opening themselves up to becoming the laughingstock both for Americans and around the world as a political organization for idiots – SNL’s recent ratings boon following Palin’s appearance on their show is a testament to this fact. As such, now is the time for the Republicans to retreat and re-brand themselves, leaving the poor Democrats to pick up the mess the Republicans leave behind on the political and economic stages, both at home and abroad.
The Democrats have been arguing that the United States has suffered due to the Republican leadership of the last eight years and that if the Democrats were in charge, things would be different. You can almost see the relish now among the Republican leadership as they survey the mess and reply ‘You want it? You can have it.’ As Powell and the Republican party surely knows, this battle has been lost. But the political war undoubtedly shall continue on.
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Some good thoughts, but I think Obama’s announcement post-Powell’s announcement, that Powell would have a part on [Obama's] staff, is what is really telling here.
Can the average person name one thing Powell had done in the last six months before this? No.
Powell’s no idiot; he knows which boat captain is going to give him the nicer cabin.
But what’s most interesting is how, during the Bush Presidency, Powell was never accepted as a “successful black man.” He was always treated as one who was never one of “his own.”
But now, his endorsement means to the world to the democrats.
I agree Powell’s endorsement is self-serving. After all, he is a politician now and I think we’d all be hard-pressed to find a single politician that does anything out of altruism. But I believe his comment of being willing to work on Obama’s team is more along the lines of a contract-negotiating tactic where he’s basically telling the Republicans he’s now a free agent. Given their impending defeat, they really can’t afford to lose people of his caliber from their team.
Who knows – perhaps in 4 years we may even see Powell as a VP-candidate on the next Republican ticket. As we’ve seen this year, anyone can land that role without so much as a blink of the eye.
The Republican Party has lots bigger problems than Colin Powell. Faithful, lifetime conservatives have left the party to run as Independents in their home states, major newspapers (not to mention right-wing pundits) around the country have endorsed their first Democratic presidential candidate, and many conservative voters are expressing their disgust, all pointing to McCain’s enormously cynical and dangerously ignorant choice of running mate.
In adopting the lowbrow campaign strategy used to defeat him eight years ago, McCain has become something very different from the heroic public servant he continues to describe himself as.
Let’s remember how thoroughly Colin Powell was betrayed by Bush and Rumsfeld, having been used to convey a great lie to the UN in order to justify an unnecessary war. Whether Powell is angling for a job in Obama’s administration or not is secondary. His candid assessment of McCain/Palin behavior was an important thing to see on a network broadcast. And given the intelligent decisions that Obama’s made thus far, I doubt he’d waste a vital cabinet post with anything less than the most qualified available individual.
Hardly surprising to see more conservatives jumping off the ol’ GOP ship considering how for the last eight years the Republican party has been catering to the neo-con/Christian right segment of the American population. The narrow focus on wooing the special-interests invariably results in the alienation of the mainstream conservative base who don’t relate to such extreme viewpoints.
But there’s also the problem with the Republicans wanting to recapture the feel of the bygone days of the Reagan era. Again, such attitudes are out of touch with the mainstream population and why they are struggling to make a connection with the majority of today’s voters. It’s hard to compete against someone talking about the future when you’re busy trying to recapture the past.
It’s why I’m certain the Republicans are hoping the election sways in favour of Obama and the Democrats and indeed why many conservatives are now publicly endorsing Obama for President. The Republicans need time to re-tool and re-examine their approach. They also need to realize that the neo-cons/Christian right will vote Republican regardless as they really have no other choice other than to simply not vote. From that vantage point, they can ignore these groups and focus instead on how to recapture the support of the mainstream conservative crowd who they need if they ever want to sit in the seat of power again.
They’re not trying to recapture 1980. They think it still is 1980.
Picture any large, mainstream corporation whose top executives are all “idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA,” as a former hedge fund manager recently said about AIG and Lehman (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/10/pothead_hedge_funder_throw_awa.html).
I am looking forward to seeing how thoroughly ouroboros-like the right wing here consumes itself as it loses control of both the Executive and Legislative branches of my sorry-ass government.
It’s fair to assume that the Republicans are going to take some big hits next month – again not surprising as its only natural for the populace to revolt as those in power when the economy goes into a tailspin. And as I said, regardless of who actually takes the job of leading the country, they are going to have some extremely high expectations put on them – not just for “change” in the status quo, but also in getting the current economic situation turned around and looking all rosy again for a consumerist-driven economy.
But that’s simply not going to happen and I can bet you in two years, the popularity of the newly-minted President will take a nosedive as people blame him for failing to do what he claimed he would. In the case of the Republicans, it serves their purpose more to have that person taking the hits be Obama, especially since the media and his followers love to prattle on how he’ll bring real change to Washington. I’m confident the Republican strategists have already done similar assessments, one reason I suspect why many elite Republicans haven’t come forward to shore up support for McCain – aside from the difficulty of trying to justify a vice-presidential candidate like Palin as being for the good of the country.
The true nature of politics is that it’s a never-ending war between differing ideologies. The only victors are those who can discern the difference between the battles you need to win and those you give to your opponent so you can save your resources for the next one.
My hope is that a President Obama can raise the level of discourse in the legislature sufficiently so that ideology cedes a bit of popularity to recognition of the need for actually getting bills passed that raise Congress’ collective approval rating from single digits (the lowest in our history).
It’s a given that a co-operative House is what the United States needs right now since it’s important that the next American government show not only determination but the political will to face the current economic crisis head-on without being bogged down in partisan finger-pointing. But I’m not sure how likely that will be for the first half of the next president-elect’s mandate, especially given how much both sides have tried to latch onto “change” as being their calling card.
If Obama does win this election, it doesn’t help the Republican party to aid the newly minted Democratic president live up to his poignant speeches of a new approach to governance. It’d be more in their interests to weigh him down so all he can do in 4 years is blame Republicans for his inability to effect the change he promised while the Republicans can make the statement that Obama turned out to be no different than any other contemporary President of the last few decades.
What I’m sure the Democrats are hoping for is a landslide victory that will cripple the Republican party’s ability to disrupt Obama’s government. This would be what in science is referred to as the “ideal conditions” that would allow for a proper evaluation of whether Obama can really live up to the grand vision he has painted of what America would be like under his rule.
Guess we’ll find out soon enough which way the wind will blow.