Powell Endorsement

On Meet The Press this morning retired Gen. Colin Powell endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for President. It appears the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State feels Obama's got chops on foreign policy, and that the Republican Party he's faithfully (too faithfully, for many on the left) served for decades has moved to the extreme right too far and too fast. He thinks Palin is a joke that exposes McCain's calcified judgment.

Does this mean anything? Most endorsements have little impact, though the press salivates over cross-party love letters (if Lieberman was a Democrat, I'd cite that example here). What makes the Powell endorsement exciting is that here we have not just a key cog in the Bush vs. Iraq saga of 1990-2004, but a cog that:

1. Moderates, independents, and people who only pay a little bit of attention all like and respect.
2. Hated the machine, that tried to stop the machine (though admittedly not hard enough).
3. Has long been the poster boy for "black guys can be Republicans too".

This last point is where the corpo-conservative national media will likely focus to explain away the impact of this defection from the Republicans. "Oh, we're just seeing racial solidarity here". Wha? Did one pundit, even one, suggest that Joe Lieberman backs McCain because they're white? How about Geraldine Ferraro's antics during the primary? No one could say that was estrogen-based lockstep without being assailed for sexism (though interestingly not by the sudden feminists working for McCain).

Anyway, more leaks in the sinking ship of the McCain campaign.