Republicans hope the wall-to-wall coverage of the attack by the baldheaded Sam “Joe the plumber” Wurzelbacher on Obama’s plans to increase taxes for those earning more than $250,000 a year has halted the Democrat’s momentum.
But any votes he might have lost could be offset:
Althea Patterson, 40, an African-American insurance worker from Roanoke, said: “I’ve got friends who went out and got their criminal records expunged so they could vote for Obama.” Former felons are barred from voting without a judge’s dispensation
And for the
Pizza Resistance:
While Colin L. Powell hasn’t decided whom to endorse — he says he’s friends with all the candidates — he had words of praise for Barack Obama and his recent speech on race.
Mr. Powell, the nation’s first black secretary of state, told “Good Morning America” host Diane Sawyer Thursday that he “admired” the way Mr. Obama addressed the contentious sermons of his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, and agreed with much of what Mr. Obama said.
“I thought that Senator Obama handled the issue well,” Mr. Powell said. “He didn’t abandon the minister that brought him closer to his faith, but at the same time he deplored the kinds of statements that the Reverend Wright had made.”
Whoops - my bad, that's from last April, before Obama dumped Wright.
Here's today:
Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president on Sunday morning as a candidate who was reaching out in a “more diverse and inclusive way across our society” and offering a “calm, patient, intellectual, steady approach” to the nation’s problems.
He based his decision on three key Democratic Party talking points. One:
Mr. Powell told reporters after the taping of “Meet the Press” that he had been disturbed in recent weeks by the negative tone of Mr. McCain’s campaign, particularly its focus on Mr. Obama’s passing relationship with William Ayers, a 1960s radical and founder of the Weather Underground.
Two:
Mr. Powell, who was secretary of state in the first term of President Bush, also said that he was concerned about Mr. McCain’s selection of Ms. Palin as his running mate and had come to the conclusion that she was the wrong choice.
“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,” Mr. Powell said during the taping.
Three:
The problem, he said, was that the Republican Party had moved further to the right “than I would like to see it,” and that over the last several weeks the approach of the party and Mr. McCain “has become narrower and narrower.”
That will come as quite a surprise to those conservatives who've publicly abandoned McCain for exactly the opposite reason over the past several weeks.
But would he serve?
Although he told Mr. Brokaw that he would not campaign for Mr. Obama in the final two weeks of the race, he did not rule out accepting an appointment in an Obama administration, whether it were a formal position or a more advisory role.
When Mr. Brokaw asked if Mr. Powell would be interested in perhaps serving as an ambassador at large in Africa or taking on the task of resolving the conflict between Israelis and Palestinianas, Mr. Powell replied: “I served 40 years in government and I’m not looking forward to a position or an assignment. Of course, I have always said if a president asks you to do something, you have to consider it.”
I'm not sure why Brokaw thought Africa was a good place for Powell, but if Obama is elected and places any Republicans in key positions it won't be the first time a President has
reached across the aisle:
He [Norm Mineta] was appointed United States Secretary of Transportation by President George W. Bush in 2001, a post he was originally offered eight years previously by Bill Clinton. He is the only Democrat to have served in Bush's cabinet and also the first Secretary of Transportation to have previously served in a cabinet position. He became the first Asian American to hold the position, and only the fourth person to be a member of Cabinet under two Presidents from different political parties (after Edwin M. Stanton [Democrat appointed Secretary of War by President Lincoln], Henry L. Stimson [Republican Secretary of War under Roosevelt] , and James R. Schlesinger [Republican, first Secretary of Energy under Jimmy Carter]).
Though not a cabinet position, Presidet Bush also kept
Democrat George J. "slam dunk" Tenet on as CIA director when he took office in 2001.
All done!
