Colin Powell rumored to be selected for high-level post

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This blog post is to be filed under "hedging my bets" because it's based on a tip from a very good friend who texted me that Ret. General and Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was to be named as Deputy Commerce Secretary under Gary Locke.

But Dennis Hightower - who's referred to as the "Colin Powell" of business and serves on the Howard University Board of Trustees with Powell - was sworn in to that position August 11th.

So either there will be two deputies, or my friend's source (who's a friend of General Powell) got it wrong, or Powell's headed to another high level post, or some hybrid possibility's afoot.

But since my friend is not in the habit of calling or texting me with this kind of tip (or any kind for that matter) and remained firm that the news was certain when I fired off questions , I elected to pull the trigger on issuing this rumor. Moveover my friend and I both worked for several years on the Obama campaign and gained a lot of well-placed contacts, so the chance my friend's correct is pretty high.

But to be sure, I just called the White House and The Department of Commerce for confirmation - no "yea" or "no" but a promise to "check and call me back" as of this writing.

Powell the focus of many appointment rumors

Since Barack Obama became the 44th President of The United States, Powell, who endorsed him even though the General's a Republican and Obama's a Democrat, has been rumored for a high-level post. Last December it was Mid East envoy, before that it was defense secretary, and for a time education secretary. And while Obama has stated that Powell would have a role within his administration, he hasn't made that happen. Meanwhile, Powell has taken to the airwaves to express concern with the President's economic strategy.

Powell appears on CNN's Larry King Show three weeks ago to talk about the Gates / Crowley issue and said he was concerned with how much money the Obama Administration was spending and where it was going. On King's show, he said:

"And the greatest concern I'm hearing -- and I see as a citizen and I hear from my fellow citizens as I go around the country -- is, my gosh, where is all this money coming from? Doesn't this mean more taxes? And we have to do -- what the administration, I think, and the Congress, has to do a better job in helping the American people understand some of these most complex issues, health care being number one.”

So it may be that Obama's planning to put Mr. Powell in a position to help him focus on the health care issue, or the economy in general. Regardless of the direction, it's clear that President Obama wants Colin Powell in his administration in some kind of way.

Stay Tuned.

Armstrong Williams jumps on the bandwagon

Joining Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, George Will and other neanderthals on that "Powell-endorsed-because-he-and-Obama-are-both-black" bandwagon is, perhaps, an unlikely candidate: conservative commentator Armstrong Williams. From his piece on The Hill's blog:

But as much as I admire and respect him, Powell made the wrong choice yesterday.
Unless he’s changed his party affiliation, Gen. Powell is still a Republican,
and Sen. Obama is as liberal as they come. Just ask yourself this: If there were
a white liberal Democrat running for president against McCain, would Gen. Powell’s decision been any different? Would his announcement on "Meet the Press" been any less prominent? The point is it’s easy to get caught up in the potential significance of this election, and I think that’s what happened with
Gen. Powell. (emphasis mine)

I'd think that Mr. Williams would know better. By the by, in a video on his website (Oct 20 video commentary), Mr. Conservative Williams says he still hasn't decided whether he will vote for McCain or Obama. I'd think that with his criticism of Powell, he didn't leave himself much room.

Army Vet Thinks Colin Powell Is "Most Important Development" Of Election

This army veteran on YouTube expressed his view that Fmr. General Colin Powell's endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President is "the most important development" of the election, and observes that the McCain Campaign "lacks integrity" and "seriousness." "IF I had any respect for McCain, it's gone...He's lowered himself to where he is a used car salesman."

COLIN POWELL ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT - ZENNIE62'S THOUGHTS

On CNN IReport

History favors McCain: Saddleback retrospective

McCain did talking points at the Saddleback forum, and he's been a known name since before becoming a household word during the Keating 5 scandal. Talking points worked for the Bush-Cheney campaign, so perhaps McCain did "win" the contest at Saddleback, as some pundits are espousing. And McCain has decades of name recognition going for him, clearly.

Obama relied on candid answers during his Saddleback appearance, which may impress people more now that we've seen the result of 8 years with a talking point president that put the economy in a tailspin (not just for today but for whoever ends up paying for Bush's war,) but obviously many find it easier to be comfortable with the talking points style of politics.

When Bush ran against Kerry, the talking point approach was reinforced by unabashed attack politics, albeit largely handled by surrogates. It worked. The term "swiftboated" as a way to describe the effect of the lies on Kerry's outcome on election day is as recognizable in the lexicon as the overuse of a "-gate" suffix for something that brings down a major figure.

So the question becomes:

Will those who prefer talking point prepared and vetted by a politician's handlers turn out to vote in larger numbers in November, or will those who prefer a President they can believe, and trust?

People knew, back when Bill Clinton ran, that they couldn't actually trust what he said, based on "didn't inhale." They understood it to be a socially acceptable answer, but not the unvarnished truth. In fact, we expect our leaders to conceal certain things from us in the name of national security, so it was curiously reassuring. That "didn't inhale" response may have been the pivotal point in electing a man with only state-level experience to the Oval Office. Then, late in his term, President Clinton began quibbling over what terms such as "sexual relations" and "is" meant... and we got George W. Bush as the country reacted to Clinton's disingenuous, political responses when the subject was personal.

So, will celebrity, attack politics and talking points win? Despite my own preferences, and hopes, it will take a lot of people showing up on election day and expressing their true desire for a candid, honest form of politics to make that happen - and like it or not, history favors McCain. Still, I'll advocate on behalf of the outsider, Obama, and vote for him in November.

I don't blame all Republicans for the state of the economy and the debt we're facing. I might've been suckered by the doctored intelligence reports, myself, when it came time to vote on various Iraq issues, and I surely believed Colin Powell, who soldiered on dutifully for his Commander In Chief in front of the United Nations and the world. We goofed, frankly -- yet this remains the one place I want to live and raise my family.

I just think under the leadership we've had since 2000 that we've gone down bad paths, and I'm ready for a pragmatic, candid, visionary leader to take the U.S.A. in a new direction.

That, my friends, is the audacity of hope.

digg this post!

AARP millionaires saying OBAMA is out of touch? Get real.

Bittergate? Is that the best they can do?

Lifting a comment out of context that provides Obama a perfect reason to talk about hope versus the same old-school say-anything to get elected politics? The faux outrage of Senators Clinton & McCain is nearly tailor made to have him repeating his message - are his opponents so desperate they've forgotten that people ARE bitter, that it's politics as usual that Obama is AGAINST, and that voters are responding with renewed hope and enthusiasm?

Colin Powell certainly sees Obama positively. Several great vids connected to this article, including the one before somebody convinced CNN to be nice to Clinton instead of calling her out on this issue, as they had earlier in the day.

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That's right, they're looking up... wondering how they'll catch him.