Colin Powell Praises Obama and, This Time, Endorses Him

For those of you who missed the video, here (via TPM) is video of Powell endorsing Obama on Meet the Press and of him answering questions about that endorsement afterwards:

on MTP



on CNN



I was struck by two things, in particular. First, I was struck by the moving story Powell told about the photo essay about our troops, part of his explanation of the impact that the recent conduct of the McCain campaign and its surrogates has had on Powell's decision. He clearly states that McCain is not a bigot, but he also doesn't let him off the hook for what's gone on around him. Second, in the brief Q&A captured in the CNN clip, Powell offered as succinct a justification of taxes generally, and of the Obama tax proposals specifically, as I've heard. He didn't parrot Joe Biden saying that paying taxes is patriotic, but his point was very similar -- just harder to caricature. On that last point, I guess there was a third thing that I want to note. Powell, near the end of the MTP clip, asserts that rhetorical gifts are important, too. He doesn't make an explicit argument for why, but I think the implication was that there was a link between Obama's rhetorical skills and Powell's belief that he could be a transformational figure in American history.