How much truth was there to the rumor that his wife convinced him not to run because she feared he be assassinated? Not asking Colibri, specifically, but if anyone knows if there some documentation regarding this idea.
Why do we imagine that Colin Powell is somehow a man of sterling character and honor? The most important action of his life was to stand up and tell lies. That he knew were lies. Lies that would encourage a situation that might result in the loss of thousands of innocent lives, and did.
He is imbued with an enormous amount of restrained charisma and a metric buttload of gravitas. These are characteristics, not virtues.
??? Cite where Powell distanced himself from Bush or repudiated the Iraq war. Powell is yet aligned with the great Bush myth that the Bush Admin was a victim of bad pre-inspection intelligence. So bad a victim that Bush gave Tenet the Medal of Freedom for getting it so wrong.
Don’t you mean: “If Colin Powell hadn’t been sandbagged by GOP insiders”?
I got the impression he had been lied to.
There are certainly Republicans who hate Obama not for the color of his skin, but the color of his character, whatever color a Socialist/Muslim/Kenyan/Nazi character might be. So Powell would have been received differently.
Misinformed for his UN speech citing pre-inspection intelligence? Yes that could be called “lied to” but there is zero excuse for his position backing Bush from February 2003 on that the UN inspections were not working. No one lied to Powell about what was public information for two months prior to the start of the invasion.
Who could lie him into believing that inspections would not resolve the WMD matter peacefully?
He went along with that lie full speed ahead supporting war.
Powell told Stephanppolos at the end of the year 2002 on national tv that Iraq was cooperating and that war was not inevitable.
Two months after that public disclosure Powell spoke the opposite after falling in line with Bush Cheney and the whole lot of neocon warmongers.
That needs to be recalled whenever Powell’s integrity is brought up.
The thing is, he is actually none of those things, so they are not real reasons to hate him, they are pretend reasons. He really is black, but even in the Tea Party you are not, these days, allowed to say that you hate and fear someone for that, so you have to come up with other, spurious reasons.
Of course, another large part of the reason is simply that he is a Democrat, and one who took away the presidency from Republicans who think it belongs to them by right. Clinton got almost as much irrational hatred thrown at him.
Y’know, Terr. Everytime someone described another as a RINO, it’s one more nail in the coffin of the Republican Party.
Just sayin’.
Powell knew it was bullshit before he made the speech. And said so in private and gave the speech anyway.
http://www.thenation.com/article/colin-powell-and-power-audacity
As masterful as the speech was (and it was except that it was based on knowing lies) those of us who were following it at the time also knew it was bullshit. Bullshit was Powell’s word for it.
If you assume the evidence of Powell’s speech, it was a very persuasive and wonderfully structured and delivered piece of rhetoric. Like a syllogism about the moon being made of green cheese, it all followed, except celestial bodies are not made of green cheese. What sold this bullshit was Powell’s personal credibility with international leaders. That speech, because Powell knew it was bullshit, used up all of Powell’s credibility with international leaders. The US public didn’t really care. Since Powell was covering up My Lai the US public has swallowed his shit sandwiches of lies with a smile. He is a convincing liar.
So to get to the OP, he could have been any US politician he wanted to be because the US public doesn’t give a shit. He could have been elected to anything. But he would not have been an effective President or Ambassador because he used up all his credibility in that speech and revealed his great skill as a liar. Other countries, without the luxury of being so much more powerful than the rest (like the USA) would never have trusted him for even small matters of business because he lied on such an important matter. Other countries have a lot less room for margin of error in their foreign policies because they might actually have to pay the consequences for a massive failure, up to and including survival.
Is there any chance you can provide a reasoned and responsive answer to What’s a RINO?
A RINO is someone whom I can easily see being a Democrat without changing any of his views.
I agree with that mostly. I’m just saying that for some people it takes more than one reason to create that level of animosity. Some of the people in question here might vote for ‘one of the good ones’ if he were otherwise suitable in their political mindset. It’s all part of the ‘one of us’ mentality.
I don’t want to hijack this thread any further after this. I’d ask that you actually read the OP of the other thread and address it’s questions (over there, again to avoid the tangent here).
Quote:
Originally Posted by **usedtobe **
Up until he did that bullshit dog & pony about Iraq’s "WMD"s at the UN, he was a fast-rising entity in the GOP.
Mace: ??? Cite that his star started to fade in the GOP after that.
Oh, come on, John. Weren’t you there?
I also don’t recall the nexus between a decline in his GOPopularity and this UN Speech. Later revelations may have added tarnish to his image, but the “up until” suggests that the speech itself triggered the decline.
I tried to find hard numbers polling Powell’s popularity, and failed. Perhaps someone else with stronger goofle-fu can find it. I was reminded, in my search, of Rove and others saying they’d prefer Limbaugh over Powell as a candidate.
It is possible, I suppose, that what Powell lost with some he made up with others, as he endorsed Obama, for example. I don’t think there’s much doubt that if it was polled today he’d have lost ground among self-identified republicans.
Emphasis added. And point of clarification: Powell endorsed Obama twice. In 2008 and again in 2012.
Really going out on a limb there, TB, aren’t you? 
Too bad the Tea Party wasn’t around as a known political entity back then. You could have blamed Powell’s political demise on them, clearing him, while demonizing them.
Tomorrow’s another day though, right?
Think you’re missing the point. Party has nothing to do with it, but ideology does.
Endorsing the other party’s nominee is usually an end of political career move in either party. Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman both endorsed Republicans across party lines in presidential races. Neither now have anyone who will speak to them in either party. I suspect the same fate has befallen Powell. At least I hope so.