Partis Veritas

As it is almost impossible to ignore, I feel it necessary to address the most apparent criticism of Colin Powell’s endorsement so far. Not only is one of the most respected African-American leaders of our country endorsing the popular African-American senator, but he himself was once considered to be the man with the highest chance of becoming America’s first African-American president. There are those who would incite this as reasoning behind his endorsement while many, such as Mr. Powell himself, rebuke this statement. What Colin Powell says helped him cross party lines and endorse a democratic candidate were the actions of the Republican Party during this election; he specifically mentions the negative attacks upon Senator Obama’s character and the false intimations that Obama was Muslim. He criticizes his party for this approach stating that “The really right answer is what if he is?” as he then continues by praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society. BBC’s North American Anchor Justin Webb expressed his satisfaction with this statement by agreeing that there should be nothing wrong with a seven year old Muslim child dreaming of one day becoming President, he goes on further saying “after all America has a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant story to tell when it comes to religious liberty and tolerance and togetherness. Second to no other nation on earth in fact.” (Webb, Justin. "Colin Powell's America." Justin Webb's America. 20 Oct 2008. BBC. 21 Oct 2008 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/justinwebb/2008/10/colin_powells_america.html). Now, while the US was built upon the notion that we as people should be free of religious persecution, many instances in our past refute that approach. Pro-Protestants could be severely bigoted towards Catholics during the era of 13 colonies, anti-Semitism, while much weaker in the US compared to Europe, still has a foothold in our society as proved by The Crown Heights Riots of 1991. This country has its fair share of religious maladies, and that kind of discrimination probably will not wane soon enough.

Colin Powell also cites the appointment of Governor Sarah Palin as flawed decision-making by Senator John McCain. In a point-blank quote he says “I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States,” however “[Joe Biden] is ready to be president on day one.” Mr. Powell cites his disappointment with her inexperience as well as her representation as a move towards the right of the political spectrum, something which he hoped his party would avoid.

McCain downplayed the importance of the endorsement citing that he and Colin Powell had a respectful disagreement and by presenting examples of the many other Secretaries and war heroes who have endorsed him. So far I have not seen any articles which show John McCain defending his running mate’s readiness to become president of our country; should that topic have been left untouched by him? Pat Buchanan, a famous republican political commentator, brought up the issue that this endorsement was simply based upon race; George Will as well as Rush Limbaugh echoed that same fact. It seems that the Republican Party is conservatively trying to downplay the endorsement by undermining Mr. Powell’s motives. Perhaps immoral perhaps not, these negative attacks upon character are pushing away moderate republicans like the former secretary of state. Why do these negative attacks continue to spill out from the right, when the issue upon negative attacks has become a polarizing issue for the party?

On the opposite spectrum, canvassers for Obama have tried to claim this endorsement as a major step towards bolstering Senator Obama’s foreign policy credentials and leadership qualities. While several haunch liberals have disliked Colin Powell for his actions during his time as secretary of state, many were quick to grab hold of his endorsement as a sign of coming victory. The democrats’ reaction to this announcement can be agreed as being predictable therefore I won’t use blog space explaining their actions.