Thomas More, Thou Art Avenged
For those reading this blog who are unfamiliar with history, read another blog. Okay, fine, Sir Thomas More and his history. Couldn't think of another general and close counselor who later, effectively betrayed his ruler for all the right reason, so with Sir Thomas we go. General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell went on Meet the Press and endorsed Barack Obama for president. He did so, happily go against the Bush White House's vision for another Republican president and unhappily going against an old friend. He made it clear he liked Senator McCain and had a lot of respect for him, but he made his case clear why he is supporting Barack Obama. It was not because McCain is evil, it was not because McCain will lead us into destruction and it was not because McCain had questionable associations with unrepetant terrorists. Powell genuinely believed Obama is a better candidate. He held back on the endorsement for many months, honestly weighing his options between John McCain and Barack Obama. Some have already said the endorsement was based on race, but the General himself shot down this theory, saying it was not about race, with Meet the Press playing video of the man saying "And I've said to Barack Obama, 'I admire you. I'll give you all the advice I can. But I'm not going to vote for you just because you're black.'" The real damage however was that he did nothing but praise McCain and all the good work he has done and how honorable a man he is, but took the entire Republican party, his own party, to task for destroying so much of the Republican party we all knew.
The beauty of Powell's endorsement is not that it's simply iconic for Bush's first secretary of state to come out so vocally for a Democratic candidate, or even that he did so invoking how bad foreign policy was carried out. It was more that he sat, looking like the Eisenhower-esque branch of the old guard Republican party, almost holding his head in shame for both having to go against his party and for what his party had become. He slammed the tactics of constantly bringing up William Ayers and his tenuous connections to Barack Obama. He decried to the "narrowing" of the Republican party appeal, which is of course the flip side of "rallying the base". The more a candidate can inflame the most extreme (that is, by definition, the least connected to the middle) parts of his or her party, the more likely the middle is going to feel left out of the party. It was another Republican president, former general, who sent in the 82nd Airborne to make sure schools were integrated racially. And, yeah, this is not about race, this is about how you view people with whom you disagree and how to enforce policy. Do you attempt to use all the options on the table, or do you have on path staked out and will have no variation thereof? Do you enforce policy that you might agree with in a way you don't agree with? Sometimes you have to, which Bush was never good at, McCain seems incapable of and Obama has already done.
Powell also referenced his displeasure with McCain's handling of the financial crisis, notably that there was no real plan for how to deal with things. McCain canceled his campaign to get a deal through, deal didn't get through, but he went on debating Obama anyway. He went for the bailout, then halfway presented a plan to bailout mortgage holders directly, then that fell by the side. Right now, McCain wants something to happen to fix the economy, but he has presented a few different plans as to why, trying to charge in headlong to trying to fix the problem, rather than come up with a real, unified plan THEN fix the problem. A good general knows not to attack without a real plan. Obama, who might be rightly accused of not quite doing enough, has hung back, waited for the feds to do their thing. And has watched Bush expand government power bigger and bigger, including passing the financial equivalent of the PATRIOT Act; massive power, no warning, no discussion and fundamental change to the way government performs. McCain voted for it, but has not been very out there cheerleading it. He didn't come up with own his plan, didn't try to "reach across the aisle" and get things done, like he kept promising. Powell cited McCain's problems in how to deal with the "final exam" of this crisis as one of things that drove him to support Obama.
But, Powell, like many others also cited the picking of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. More than anything resembling Ayers, a running mate is the best way to determine what kind of people a presidential candidate will have in his or her campaign. Obama picked someone who both knows how to get shit done and has no fear of telling truth to power (in fact, he's famous for his gaffes for speaking his mind too freely). McCain picked someone who might have been at the start of a brilliant political career as a tough minded maverick, or someone who managed to get into office by being better than her predecessor and smiled pretty for the cameras. She screams about Obama palling around with terrorist, despite the fact her husband was part of a group that was dedicated to breaking Alaska away from the United States. She speaks about how Obama isn't like "you and me", how some part of America are more pro-America than others and how there are "good and patriotic people" at her rallies, leading to the conclusion that other rallies don't have good and patriotic people. A divisive tone by a candidate with no real qualifications, which was a key issue that Powell found so disagreeable with the McCain camp. He was the possible future of the Republican party embodied by this woman, and it possibly scared him. He had seen the past few years of what happens when you have a government full of people who won't listen to others, proceed along pre-determined paths and those who defend themselves by attacking others.
Truthfully, that was the best part of the entire endorsement. It was the way he did the endorsement. Anyone who read or saw the whole thing clearly saw that he feels great respect and admiration for Senator McCain. He called him a friend many times through his interview. It was also clear he had no respect for Sarah Palin and that he missed the Republican party he had once called home. Powell said "I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines--ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values." An indictment of the entire Bush view of the world, the Republican party's current evolution and generally everything that drove many, including this poor man's Howard Beale, to be driven out of the Republican party. The convention this year was allegedly that of two mavericks, yet most of the speeches that were given were about "we" need to get out there and secure this country from "them" who would do terrible things. The infamous them who are not like "you and me" and who need to be fought. There was a time, a real time, when the Republicans were not just about creating a base large enough just to get elected and small enough to have complete orthodoxy and cast out the unbelievers. Powell has long been respected as the venerable general, the somber voice of experience and no bullshit. He was the man people in both parties respected, and now he has turned that reputation into a repudiation and even scolding of his party. Perhaps a final plea to return to the party they were.
Because the party they are can't get elected.
So it is written, so do I see it.
The beauty of Powell's endorsement is not that it's simply iconic for Bush's first secretary of state to come out so vocally for a Democratic candidate, or even that he did so invoking how bad foreign policy was carried out. It was more that he sat, looking like the Eisenhower-esque branch of the old guard Republican party, almost holding his head in shame for both having to go against his party and for what his party had become. He slammed the tactics of constantly bringing up William Ayers and his tenuous connections to Barack Obama. He decried to the "narrowing" of the Republican party appeal, which is of course the flip side of "rallying the base". The more a candidate can inflame the most extreme (that is, by definition, the least connected to the middle) parts of his or her party, the more likely the middle is going to feel left out of the party. It was another Republican president, former general, who sent in the 82nd Airborne to make sure schools were integrated racially. And, yeah, this is not about race, this is about how you view people with whom you disagree and how to enforce policy. Do you attempt to use all the options on the table, or do you have on path staked out and will have no variation thereof? Do you enforce policy that you might agree with in a way you don't agree with? Sometimes you have to, which Bush was never good at, McCain seems incapable of and Obama has already done.
Powell also referenced his displeasure with McCain's handling of the financial crisis, notably that there was no real plan for how to deal with things. McCain canceled his campaign to get a deal through, deal didn't get through, but he went on debating Obama anyway. He went for the bailout, then halfway presented a plan to bailout mortgage holders directly, then that fell by the side. Right now, McCain wants something to happen to fix the economy, but he has presented a few different plans as to why, trying to charge in headlong to trying to fix the problem, rather than come up with a real, unified plan THEN fix the problem. A good general knows not to attack without a real plan. Obama, who might be rightly accused of not quite doing enough, has hung back, waited for the feds to do their thing. And has watched Bush expand government power bigger and bigger, including passing the financial equivalent of the PATRIOT Act; massive power, no warning, no discussion and fundamental change to the way government performs. McCain voted for it, but has not been very out there cheerleading it. He didn't come up with own his plan, didn't try to "reach across the aisle" and get things done, like he kept promising. Powell cited McCain's problems in how to deal with the "final exam" of this crisis as one of things that drove him to support Obama.
But, Powell, like many others also cited the picking of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate. More than anything resembling Ayers, a running mate is the best way to determine what kind of people a presidential candidate will have in his or her campaign. Obama picked someone who both knows how to get shit done and has no fear of telling truth to power (in fact, he's famous for his gaffes for speaking his mind too freely). McCain picked someone who might have been at the start of a brilliant political career as a tough minded maverick, or someone who managed to get into office by being better than her predecessor and smiled pretty for the cameras. She screams about Obama palling around with terrorist, despite the fact her husband was part of a group that was dedicated to breaking Alaska away from the United States. She speaks about how Obama isn't like "you and me", how some part of America are more pro-America than others and how there are "good and patriotic people" at her rallies, leading to the conclusion that other rallies don't have good and patriotic people. A divisive tone by a candidate with no real qualifications, which was a key issue that Powell found so disagreeable with the McCain camp. He was the possible future of the Republican party embodied by this woman, and it possibly scared him. He had seen the past few years of what happens when you have a government full of people who won't listen to others, proceed along pre-determined paths and those who defend themselves by attacking others.
Truthfully, that was the best part of the entire endorsement. It was the way he did the endorsement. Anyone who read or saw the whole thing clearly saw that he feels great respect and admiration for Senator McCain. He called him a friend many times through his interview. It was also clear he had no respect for Sarah Palin and that he missed the Republican party he had once called home. Powell said "I also believe that on the Republican side over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines--ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values." An indictment of the entire Bush view of the world, the Republican party's current evolution and generally everything that drove many, including this poor man's Howard Beale, to be driven out of the Republican party. The convention this year was allegedly that of two mavericks, yet most of the speeches that were given were about "we" need to get out there and secure this country from "them" who would do terrible things. The infamous them who are not like "you and me" and who need to be fought. There was a time, a real time, when the Republicans were not just about creating a base large enough just to get elected and small enough to have complete orthodoxy and cast out the unbelievers. Powell has long been respected as the venerable general, the somber voice of experience and no bullshit. He was the man people in both parties respected, and now he has turned that reputation into a repudiation and even scolding of his party. Perhaps a final plea to return to the party they were.
Because the party they are can't get elected.
So it is written, so do I see it.