Military leader endorses Obama

The major development this weekend as the presidential race winds down was the endorsement of Barack Obama by Gen. Colin Powell, widely-admired military leader and former Sec. of State for President George W. Bush.

The endorsement had been anticipated for some time and Gen. Powell finally made the announcement Sunday on the nationally-televised "Meet the Press" program.

The support no doubt will come as a boost to Obama, since national security and military issues generally have been cited as among his potential weaknesses.

Some skeptics no doubt will say race was the overriding issue in Gen. Powell's decision, but he strongly denied that, indicating he would have made the announcement much earlier if that were the case. In his televised comments, the general said he studied the situation for many months before arriving at his decision. He also said both major candidates are well-qualified to be president, but he believes Obama is the right candidate for America's future and that he will be a "transformational" leader as the nation moves on into the 21st Century.

Perhaps Powell's strongest comments related to John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate:

"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 president of the United States, which is the job of vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made."

Here is the point, as we see it. It was Sen. John McCain's duty and responsibility, as the nominee of his party, to make what is by far his most important decision thus far -- the selection of his vice presidential candidate. This is a person who indeed is "one heartbeat away" from the presidency, no trivial situation when the nominee is 72-years-old and a cancer survivor.

He chose Sarah Palin.

What is great about America is that each person has the freedom to make his or her own judgments and to evaluate and vote as each sees fit. With that said, if an individual voter can envision Sarah Palin as president of the United States, then so be it. As for us, we just can't see it. Plain and simple.

Gen. Powell is right that she is not knowledgeable and not qualified and this decision more than calls into question McCain's critical judgment.

For some reason, a significant portion of the American electorate seems to support the concept that our national leaders should be "just like us" to be acceptable. As for us, we want someone who is exceptional, possesses an awareness of the issues and has the maturity and strength to lead our nation in these perilous times. We want someone who can stand at a press conference and discuss economic and foreign policy issues in an intelligent and forceful manner and who isn't afraid to be asked questions and be expected to know what he or she is talking about.

Many conservative columnists and leaders have had the courage to point out the obvious -- that Sarah Palin is not even close to being qualified.

One columnist, Leonard Pitts Jr. of McClatchy Newspapers, commented on this trend of some voters wanting national candidates to be "like us":

"In that sense, Sarah Six Pack is nothing new. The 'g' droppin', moose shootin', eye-winkin' hockey mom has plenty of antecedents. But there's a difference. Those antecedents were smart, wonkish people pretending to be one of us. Sarah Palin 'is' one of us.

"And by 'us,' I don't mean you, necessarily, or me. I mean the lowest common denominator us, the us of myth and narrative, the us of simple mind, the reactionary, ill-informed, impatient with complexity, utterly shallow us.

"Even many of her ardent admirers no longer dispute that Sarah Six Pack is, shall we say, incurious. What's striking is how little that seems to matter."

Gen. Powell carefully crafted the positive reasons he is supporting Barack Obama (and we would encourage everyone to observe a clip of his seven-minute endorsement statement), but one can't overlook the dimensions of the negative where John McCain is concerned in his selection of Sarah Palin as potentially the next president of our country.

--REK