Posted on 02/09/2008 6:34:50 PM PST by jdm
Edited on 02/09/2008 6:37:40 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
This contrasts 180 degrees with John McCain, who was out in front in trying to get Bolton confirmed for the 'un'.
He’s angling for a job in the Hillary/Obama administration. He would fit in perfectly with that bunch of pacifists.
::::::
With knee pads on in front of the U.N. The Liberal Panderer’s ideal “general”....
They could finesse it easily enough. He was always rumored to have been a dissident, and is generally viewed as being a man of integrity by the average folks who decide elections. The press isn't going to dig too deep if he is her vp in any case.
One thing I have learned lately is that people who get their news from CNN and Oprah don't see things the way we do, they don't obsess about details of a man's record because they don't know them. If you try to tell them, their eyes glaze over. Their approach to picking a candidate is very intuitive; if they like you, you're in. If they don't, you're out. Your actual record or the context within which it was lived out doesn't play into the decision much.
She is not particularly likeable, and thats her weak point. But Powell is, and having him visibly on her team would do a lot to smooth off her edges. If Obama could get him on board, it would have a way of reducing his lack of experience as a factor, if he surrounds himself with people who are perceived as principled heavy-hitters. Like the way Powell is viewed by the general public.
McCain-Powell?? I think it could work...
I think I just became sick to my stomach.
Just goes to show you what happens when we don’t nominate a real Reagan Republican!
IIRC, the Clintons were preparing to run against Powell in 1996.
I think the republican party has been very nice to Mr Powell.
KING OF THE RINOS
This is a free country! He can do whatever he wants to do!
I don’t give a shit!
One: CP can’t support McCain.
Two: he wants to be HRC - VP.
Specter and Giuliani are currently occupying the RINO throne, Powell is just the court jester.
Everything I would have to say about Colin Powell on this issue and his “indecision” — would get me banned for LIFE!
Just another disloyal Republican that Bush chose.
Who’s Paul O’Neill and Tom Ridge voting for?
The bushes ruined what Reagan began.
Damn shame.
Old news
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19092206/
It doesn’t sound like at all he’s bitter at Bush.
MR. RUSSERT: Karen DeYoung wrote a book called “Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell,” and she quotes someone very close and near and dear to you, your wife of almost 45 years, Alma Powell, and this what she says: “Powell’s wife Alma thought Colin had been callously used to promote a war she wished had never happened. ‘They needed him to do it,’ Alma said, ‘because they knew people would believe him.’” Do you feel used?
GEN. POWELL: No. I feel that when—I was part of an administration that, over a period of years, had created a body of evidence and intelligence that said this is a dangerous regime. And I had no love for Saddam Hussein, as you can appreciate. For 12 years I’d been listening to, “Well, why didn’t you take him out back in 1991?” So I had no truck with this regime, and we had a steady stream of intelligence reports that suggested he was a danger. And he became more of a danger after 9/11 when the possibility emerges that some of these terrible weapons he was working on—and let there be no doubt that he was continuing to work on these. He was continuing to hope that he could escape the boundaries of the UN sanctions and get back to making these kinds of weapons. And if you believe otherwise, I think that would be a naive belief. And so, throughout that time, we had this consistent body of evidence. And when the president called me in and said, “I want you to go to the United Nations and make the presentation,” I didn’t blink in the slightest because I had been using that intelligence all along in my presentations and had every reason to believe it. The problem we had in the next five days was that a product was being worked on in the White House and the NSC which was unusable. It was more a legal brief than it was an analysis.
MR. RUSSERT: But did you think at that time a pre-emptive war was the best course for the US, or did you think that Saddam was already boxed because of the sanctions?
GEN. POWELL: I would’ve preferred no war because I couldn’t see clearly the unintended consequences. But we tried to avoid that war with the UN sanctions and putting increasing diplomatic and international pressure on Saddam Hussein. But when I took it to the president and said, “This is a war we ought to see if we can avoid,” I also said and made it clear to him, “If, at the end of the day, it is a war that we cannot avoid, I’ll be with you all the way.” That’s, that’s part of being part of a team. And therefore I couldn’t have any other outcome, and I had no reservations about supporting the president in war. And I think things could’ve turned out differently after the middle of April if we had responded in a different way.
GEN. POWELL: They are. Guantanamo has become a major, major problem for America’s perception as it’s seen, the way the world perceives America. And if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow, but this afternoon. I’d close it. And I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system. The concern was, “Well, then they’ll have access to lawyers, then they’ll have access to writs of habeas corpus.” So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about? And, by the way, America, unfortunately, has two million people in jail all of whom had lawyers and access to writs of habeas corpus. And so we can handle bad people in our system. And so I would get rid of Guantanamo and I’d get rid of the military commission system and use established procedures in federal law or in the manual for courts-martial. I would do that because I think it’s a more equitable way to do it and it’s more understandable in constitutional terms. I would always—I would also do it because every morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds. And so, essentially, we have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission. We don’t need it, and it’s causing us far damage than any good we get for it. But, remember what I started in this discussion saying, “Don’t let any of them go.” Put them into a different system, a system that is experienced, that knows how to handle people like this.
MR. RUSSERT: Before you go, Newsweek magazine reports that Senator Barack Obama has sought you out for your advice on foreign policy. True?
GEN. POWELL: True. I’ve met with Senator Obama twice. I’ve been around this town a long time, and I know everybody who is running for office, and I make myself available to talk about foreign policy matters and military matters with whoever wishes to chat with me.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you ever come back in the government?
GEN. POWELL: I would not rule it out. I’m not at all interested in political life, if you mean elected political life. That is unchanged. But I always keep my, my eyes open and my ears open to requests for service.
MR. RUSSERT: Any endorsements?
GEN. POWELL: Oh, not yet. It’s too early.
MR. RUSSERT: But you’ll support the Republican?
GEN. POWELL: It’s too early.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you support an independent?
GEN. POWELL: I’m going to support, I’m going to support the best person that I can find who will lead this country for the eight years beginning in January 2009.
MR. RUSSERT: Of any party?
GEN. POWELL: The best person I can find.
MR. RUSSERT: General Powell, thank you for your views.
GEN. POWELL: Thank you.
The Republican Party has been nice to Ted Kennedy too.
Well...duh.....he’s going back to the Plantation masser.....
He’s Europe’s favorite American politician - he has to live up their expectations. ;)
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