The Sunshine Empire

The worst kept secret in political Washington was revealed today as former General and Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the office of President. I don’t think this is any kind of a game changer, nor will it drastically affect the course of the race, but the reaction to the endorsement and the questioning of the motives of it has been fascinating. In George W. Bush’s first run for the White House Powell’s name was dropped to the press as the eventual selection for State prior to the election to engender trust that the inexperienced Governor of Texas would look more prepared. He stayed the good soldier even as he got thrown under the bus on the Iraq invasion. The game changer in the run up to war with Iraq was Powell’s speech to the UN, again because he was reassuring to the world.

Yet this trust seems to have been forgotten now that he has endorsed the Democratic nominee, based solely on the fact that both Senator Obama and Secretary Powell share the same skin pigment. Chris Rock is right when discusses how white men can choose to vote for Obama because he spoke to them on issues that they hold dear, and African Americans are genetically pre-disposed to having to vote for him.

The true motives for Powell may not be entirely politically pristine, but they have little to do with race. Powell was the lone voice of diplomacy in the first term of Bush 43. He was the one sent out to the Security Council and it is well known documented fact that he was given so much information from the Vice President’s office that he refused to use. He was forced out of the Administration when he had fulfilled his usefulness. This is retribution directed toward the Bush Administration and the GOP. Obama’s color has nothing to do with the way Powell was treated by an ungrateful group of neo-cons. If race were an issue he would be out on the campaign trail like Oprah, and he has ruled out that in any facet. This is nothing but revenge. All of that said, this will only benefit Obama by keeping the news cycle away from McCain. Which leads me to my next topic, which is the tightening of the race for the White House.