Colin Powell endorses Obama, says Palin unqualified, defends Muslim-Americans

It was not a great surprise that retired four-star Gen. Colin Powell, the first secretary of State in George W. Bush's administration, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president today.

He had served in several Republican administrations — as a national security adviser in the Reagan White House, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush during the Gulf War. But after leaving government in 2004, Powell and his wife, Alma, formed America's Promise, an organization dedicated to helping children from all socioeconomic groups. So it was not unimaginable that he would prefer a candidate who advocates more spending for education, healthcare reform and tax cuts for the middle class, over his friend of 25 years, Republican John McCain.

And maybe it's not even a surprise that Powell, whose reputation was tarnished by his support for the war in Iraq with his vigorous claim to the United Nations that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction, would embrace the antiwar Obama. On NBC's "Meet the Press," he even endorsed Obama's call for diplomatic outreach to countries like Iran and North Korea, saying:

We have managed to convey to the world that we are more unilateral than we really are. The new president is going to have to fix the reputation that we've left with the rest of the world ... and show that there is a new president, a new administration that is looking forward to working with our friends and allies. And in my judgment, also willing to talk to people who we have not been willing to talk to before. Because this is a time for outreach.

But it was a surprise — at least to our ears — to hear the 71-year-old Powell so roundly declare that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was not qualified to be president of the United States.

She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired. But at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made.

And it was also a surprise — and a refreshing one at that — to hear a leading American figure rise in defense of Muslim Americans against stereotypes about their patriotism.

For months, rumors have spread that Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, was a Muslim. In fact, the Illinois senator is a Christian. But Powell is the first high-profile leader to raise a larger question, to wonder what would be disqualifying if Obama were a Muslim American.

Telling the story of a mother at the Arlington Cemetery graveside of her 20-year-old son, Kareem Rashad Sultan Kahn, who died for his country in Iraq, Powell said the "right response" to rumors that Obama is a Muslim is not only to deny them but to expose them as bigoted and un-American.

I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said, such things as, "Well, you that know 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 7-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 with terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.
 

Source:Los Angeles Times