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In an effort to maximize the benefit of Colin Powell's recent endorsement, the Obama campaign is out with a new radio ad today touting the Republican former Secretary of State's support for the president, highlighting remarks he made in a recent interview with CBS News' Charlie Rose. The minute-long ad, which according to the campaign will air in Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, and Colorado, replays a clip of Powell's October 25 endorsement, which he announced on "CBS This Morning."

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, told The Daily Caller that he will be “listening” to both GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney and President Obama before making any “judgments” on their foreign policies. “I’m not going to do politics tonight, and I will be watching both Mr. Romney and President Obama and see what judgments I come to as a result of listening to them, but that’s not tonight,” he told TheDC at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. “Tonight is entertainment and fun.” In September 2010 Powell said he thought...

Colin Powell on Sunday blamed the media as well as the Tea Party for the divisive political tone in Washington. Not surprisingly, neither the class warfare stoked by President Obama and his Party nor the resulting Occupy Wall Street movement was mentioned during this seven minute interview with Christiane Amanpour on ABC's This Week (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Colin Powell is holding off on endorsing President Obama in the 2012 election, but said that he still views the president as a “transformational figure.” Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of State under the Bush administration, backed Obama for president in 2008. But on Sunday he said that he would wait closer to 2012 to make his endorsements. "I will look at the needs of the country, the situation as I see it, and I will evaluate both candidates and see which one I think is best able to lead the country," Powell...

Retired Gen. Colin Powell, a moderate Republican who endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, says the president's critics should be going after him on policy, not "nonsense." "Fringe" elements on the right are taking a low road when they label Obama a foreign-born Muslim and peddle other theories about non-American influences on the president's character, Powell said Sunday. Obama was born in the U.S. and is Christian. The former secretary of state said he still sees Obama as a transformational figure, if one who has lost some of his ability to connect with people. Powell welcomed Obama's policies in health care...

Has anyone heard from Colin Powell lately? Since Barack Obama became president, there has been silence from Colin Powell about a man he described as having "great insight into the challenges we're facing of a military and political and economic nature." When can we expect Powell to show the courage to admit his mistake, his blunder, his betrayal? Just weeks before the 2008 presidential election, Powell went on television to attack John McCain and the Republican Party. He then, in his wisdom, endorsed Barack Obama:

(Newser) – It's time to get past the incessant partisan potshots being taken at President Obama and forge some progress, Colin Powell told Face the Nation today. "I don’t think the country will be well served if the next three years are attempts to bring him down and destroy him as a political figure," said the Republican, who added that "Americans will want to see some progress" and said he doesn't regret voting for Obama in 2008. Powell also dismissed Dick Cheney's suggestions that the country was less safe under Obama as bunk: "To suggest that somehow we’ve become much...