If Barack Obama ever needed the hep of a 700-pound gorilla, he got it on Sunday with the endorsement of former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin Powell.
Powell praised Obama’s calm, patient and intellectual approach to problem solving. He said it’s time for a generational change and a fresh set of eyes on the challenges this country faces, and noted that Obama’s election would help patch up our reputation in the rest of the world.
He wasn’t rejecting John McCain so much as the Republican Party, saying the focus of the GOP campaign has become narrower and narrower, and that the party needs to change direction. His feelings about his party certainly aren’t new, but perhaps this endorsement will make its members sit up and pay attention.
As for Sarah Palin, he gets it; the vice-president’s primary job is to be a spare president, and Palin is unqualified, in Powell’s judgment, to do that job. But when is Palin going to get it? Sorry to break it to you, Governor, but there’s a great gulf fixed between “Live, from New York, it’s Saturday night!” and a State of the Union address.
As for Obama’s ears, the cartoonists and now even the candidate himself have had a lot of fun with the organs seemingly borrowed from Alfred E. Newman. But will Obama use those ears to listen? Clearly he isn’t going to be able to pursue a classical liberal agenda in the current economic climate. The government is too busy with the bailing cans to think about spending any new money – there is none. Campaign promises are so much air; it’s the qualities the candidate brings to the table. After this crisis passes, he'll need those qualities to deal with the next one.
There, now I've said it.
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