Atrios wrote, "what little credibility Colin Powell had is in a little vial of white powder somewhere." I agree. I guess I have to after posting THIS.
Juan Cole may have gotten too caught up in the moment when he posted today (video of Powell on Meet the Press is included there). But there is something Powell said that I do appreciate.
Colin Powell: 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'll thank him for that. I've been waiting for it and not hearing it from Obama himself.
Do I think, as Professor Cole does, that, "Powell has not just endorsed a candidate. He has begun to redeem himself from his failure to resign in fall of 2003 when it became clear he had been used by the Neoconservatives."?
Not yet. The only thing that would begin to do that in my mind is Powell's admission that he knew he was peddling bullshit at the United Nations. An analyst in his own Department, Greg Theilmann, did so at the time, as explained in news stories several years ago.
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