Who Really Puts "Country First"? Colin Powell

A primary motivator for Colin Powell's public endorsement of Barack Obama for president appears to have been the character of the negative attacks by the McCain campaign.

Appearing generally somber and thoughtful during his remarks following the taping of Meet the Press, former Secretary of State Powell became most animated during his discussion of the nature of John McCain's campaign strategy during recent weeks. Negative campaigning that sticks to highlighting realities is one thing -- but the distortions, slurs and race baiting implemented by the McCain campaign are another animal altogether. Their use by a candidate who has built his reputation on his professed integrity has puzzled, shocked and repelled many in the Republican Party who, like Powell, have known John McCain for years.

~snip~

In the end, however, one man in the Republican Party truly has decided to put "country first" - and that man is Colin Powell.


More here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-mcelrath-renna/who-really-puts-country-f_b_135920.html

<<"Sen. McCain says he a washed-up old terrorist—then why does he keep talking about him?" Powell asked.

"They're trying to connect to some kind of terrorist feelings, and I think that's inappropriate," Powell said. "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."

Powell said he has "heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion a Muslim and might be associated with terrorists."

"This is not the way we should be doing it in America. I feel strongly about this particular point," Powell said. "We have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way. And John McCain is as non-discriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that within the party, we have these kinds of expressions."

Powell, a four-star Army general, was national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, when George H.W. Bush was president; and was President George W. Bush’s first secretary of State. >>

From Politico: http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081019/pl_politico/14714

Excellent article! His endorsement was clearly an indictment on that party, especially the McCain/Palin campaign.