Powell was the administration official here who went to the UN and explained the whole "Iraq and weapons of mass destruction" argument.
Until he endorsed Obama, he was an anathema to the left, who considered him a sellout for doing so.
Now that he wisely chose to supplicate himself before the new regime he is back in their good graces.
You really didn't listen to the Meet the Press interview did you? While it's true that Powell was instrumental in selling this war to the UN and the American public, he himself , to quote him thought the intel he was presenting was "bullshit ("i'm not saying this, this is bullshit"" but did it anyway out of loyalty to the office of the President. He has since admitted that and shown remorse for misleading the American public into war.
Here was one instance where his own press detail tried to censor him for doing so.
and one where he said he was misled:
So I can see why he did so complete a break with the gOp. It's devolved into something dishonorable and in his words "narrow". It's essentially a groupthink McCarthyite mob now that wants to investigate people for being "UnAmerican" and tries to smear people with "associations' no matter how limited. This is the 1950's redux.
McCain has always been a pragmatist centrist Republican and was no friend to the neoconservatives who ginned up the evidence for war and relied on Ahmed Chalabi and his informant "curveball" for their bullshit intel. Powell clearly stated his many reasons for endorsing Obama including one fact i've harped on here these past few days, this move to the far extremist right by the Republican party to the exclusion of any dissenting or contrary opinions. You may want to see the ENTIRE Meet the Press segment from yesterday. He didn't leave any ambiguity as to his reasoning.
Now I thought that part where he mentions Muslims in general and that one Muslim Iraq war soldier that is buried at Arlington specifically was powerful. Powerful and necessary to say since you guys on the far right routinely go on spiels about how just being Muslim in general is some great crime.
The gOp is fucking themselves with their extremism. I'm happy to see it but i'm unhappy that it is happening in this country at all Where roughly 1/4 of this country is under the thrall of all this hate that the prty has devolved to. And that's not just whomod and liberal opinion. This is also being echoed by more and more Republicans who haven't drank the extremist right wing kool-Aid.
Here he is after the interview even further clarifying his reasoning. And he mentioned that crazed right wing Congresswoman who wants to investigate "unAmericanism" in Congress specifically that helped influence his decision to endorse Obama:
Pretty soon the gOp is just going to be a small mob of crazed people convinced that everyone is being brainwashed by the Muslims!
