Sell-Out

I made sure I got up in time to watch Meet the Press yesterday. It wasn't easy, especially considering we sat in traffic on Shop Road for an hour trying to get back to the Magic City and forget yet another Gamecock heart breaker. The reason for setting the alarm, ensuring I got only 5 hours sleep? Colin Powell was going to endorse Barak Obama.

Was it worth it? Damn right. Powell gave what was one of the most concise and intelligent endorsements I have ever seen one politician (or pseudo-pol) give another. He correctly articulated the concerns of many Americans. And he did it with the gravitas befitting a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

One of Powell's more prescient points:

And I’ve also been disappointed, frankly, by some of the approaches that Senator
McCain has taken recently, or his campaign ads, on issues that are not really
central to the problems that the American people are worried about. This Bill
Ayers situation that’s been going on for weeks became something of a central
point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he’s a washed-out
terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him? And why do
we have these robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that,
because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with
Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they’re trying to connect
him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s
inappropriate.

Now, I understand what politics is all about. I know how
you can go after one another, and that’s good. But I think this goes too
far. And I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little
narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for. And I
look at these kinds of approaches to the campaign and they trouble me. And
the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated
a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more
conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that’s what we’d be looking
at in a McCain administration. I’m also troubled by, not what Senator
McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said
such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct
answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a
Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there
something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not
America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American
kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior
members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be
associated terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a
magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and
Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a
mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son’s
grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the
headstone. And it gave his awards–Purple Heart, Bronze Star–showed that he
died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old.
And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross, it
didn’t have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic
faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American.
He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he
waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now, we
have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way. And John McCain is as
nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I’m troubled about the fact that,
within the party, we have these kinds of expressions.

Powell's comments outside the studio, to reporters was even more telling (link below). He basically said the crap the McCain-Palin campaign is pushing is the shit Al-Jeezera is sending out to the world and it is "killing us." That's right...the "Country First" crowd is actually endangering American lives by pushing the Muslim = anti-American stuff.

So who's the guy above and why is he a sell-out? He's Michael Steele, former Lt. Governor of Maryland, current Fox News talking head and token black guy for the Republican party. Why is he a sell-out? Is it because he is a Republican? No. It's because I listened to him on NPR this morning and I heard him serve up the current talking point for the McCain campaign in response to Powell's endorsement.

According to Steele, Powell just wants to be a part of history and get on the first-black President bandwagon. You see, it's all about Powell being black. They always stick with their own, you know. Well then, Michael...if that's the case, how does one explain you?

I would comment on Sarah Palin taking exception to Powell declaring her not ready for the Oval Office, but why bother. I mean what does a man who has worked closely with Presidents in times of crisis know about judging the readiness of an intellectually uncurious Governor? It's not like he's ever seen one of those before or anything.