Friends say Powell uncomfortable in job
Seems Powell has had enough ?
What are we debating here? Powell’s character? 'Fraid there ain’t to many of us here who know the guy personally, so I expect the substantive responses should be quite limited.
Must be a slow news day in Brazil…
My gut feel (and that’s all it is) tells me that Powell will not be Sec of State if Bush wins again. I just don’t think he and Bush see eye-to-eye enough.
I think Powell is a decent guy, but I’ve been disappointed in him. He seems to have been a pretty weak and ineffectual Secretary of State, and yes, he virtually radiates discomfort. I don’t know if this is because he’s in over his head or simply because he disagrees with Bush’s policies, but either way I haven’t been particularly impressed with him.
I’m sure having to sell the WMD “proof” to the UN that he knew was “bullshit” (his word, according to Newsweek), and be proven a liar or fool later, hasn’t sat well with him. It wouldn’t with me.
IMHO if Powell had his way, there would have been no war. He was literally bullied into taking the position he did. Whether Bush will make pick him if he gets re-elected is not known, but I think even if he does offer Powell to be Sec of State again, Powell will refuse. Not Condelzza Rice though.
Here is another interesting article on Colin Powell that appeared in The American Prospect.
To be honest, I am torn between feeling sorry for the guy and feeling the way you feel about someone who has sold out to the devil for whatever reasons. I suppose he would argue that things would have been a lot worse if he wasn’t there at all to provide some assemblance of sanity to balance the neocon nutcases. And, who knows, maybe this is true. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine how much worse things could really be.
I do not have any sort of personal knowledge of the Secretary of State. The Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps 30 or 35 years ago was a small outfit where many of the officers and enlisted people knew each other and talked about the commanders they worked for. Powell, then a rising Lieutenant Colonel, had a reputation as smart, humane, ambitious and trustworthy – a stand up guy whose word could be trusted. He also had a reputation as a good soldier who would do what he was told to do and do it to the best of his considerable ability. You get the idea that the characteristics that made Collin Powell a good officer-- courage, steadfastness and loyalty-- are the very characteristics that have made him the Administration’s toadie.
This subject was discussed on Joe Scarborough tonight with the author of an article in the current issue of GQ magazine. I found the article online HERE. The author says he was given full access to all of Powell’s staff and that everyone seemingly wanted the true story to come out. Of course, following normal Washington D.C. protocol, Powell’s spokesman denied everything on publication of the article. An interesting comment was made by the author that “Powell seems to want it both ways”, meaning he doesn’t agree with much of what Bush has done, but he doesn’t want to appear to be disloyal to Bush either.
Personally, until Powell stands up and tell everyone directly what he thinks and where he stands, he would seem to fit rather well into this weaseling administration. His eventual book should be interesting. 
From this side of the pond, he’d make an excellent running mate for Hilary Clinton in 2008. After the four more years of ultra-right aphasic gibbon politics I believe will begin in November, they might even be able to get the US electorate to vote for civilised policies.
Powell is stuck between a rock and a hard place. I’ve heard talk, almost from the beginning, that he’s just not cut out for this job. At least, not in this administration.
The Secretary of State is required to represent the President’s views. In my opinion, it’s a really high-placed “yes man” job. Unfortunately, I don’t believe their ideas are always in alignment. The art of the job is to 1) make your President look good in other countries (pretty tough job in this administration); and 2) to make it look like you believe everything you’re saying, even if you don’t. I see Colin Powell as a really good guy who is trapped in a position where he has to go against his better judgement to represent Bush. I feel sorry for him. I hope he gets out. I think he’d be much more effective at serving his country in the private sector.
I think that Kalhoun has a good read on the subject.
From all accounts I’ve read about him, Powell is an extremely bright, hardworking, dedicated soilder/civil servant; however, he’s been asked to be the global mouthpiece for an administration that doesn’t place a high regard on diplomacy or nuance (which are the stock in trade of the State Department).
As was pointed out, the very traits that make him a great soilder and a great member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff make him an ineffective Secretary of State.
This is how I see him. I remember a couple of years ago, he publicly disagreed with Bush’s policies. He seemed to disappear for a while. When he showed up again, he was talking as if he had Cheyney’s arm up his back. I thought he had been “taken to the wood shed”.
I understand that he thought he could delay or avoid Bush’s War by staying inside the administration; but I think the better option would have been to publicly split from the warmongers and resign his position.
So yeah, I think he is a good man in a bad situation; and that he hurt his reputation by making the wrong choice of remaining Secretary of State.
He seems to be a man of genuine honor and principle. He knows enough about war that as a diplomat, he thought it his duty to explore every avenue to avoid it. And that he wasn’t given the opportunity to attempt to avoid the Iraq war certainly must bother him tremendously, in fact I would not be surprised if he seriously considered resigning in protest. But he’s a loyal enough person and unwilling to weaken the presidency, so we may never know just how betrayed he felt about this war that he would have liked to avoid. I would love to see him write a tell-all book about his years in the Bush cabinet but it wouldn’t be his style to do so. If Bush wins, look for Powell to resign before the next inaugural.
(Bolding mine) This is the real kicker. Bush told Bob Woodward that he didn’t consult Powell before deciding to go to war. The Secretary of State, particularly THIS Secretary of State, would be one of the first people I’d talk to before making such a monumental decision. My guess is that Bush knew damn well that Powell would have advised against it (at least at that point) and didn’t want to hear it. Ditto on the rest of his “respected” cabinet members (and I use the term loosely). Powell was forced into a situation that he was against, and as such, has played it low key, thereby minimizing the sense of hypocracy he must have about the whole thing. Just my take.
Make that “hypocrisy”. I’m such an illiterate ass. :wally
My take on Powell is that he’s motivated by a sense of duty to his country. It may be that he has stayed in a place where he’s been marginalized out of a devotion to trying to keep the ideologues in check, to minimize the damage they could cause. Unfortunately he’s been ineffective, especially since “joining the club” with the UN speech (and I look forward to reading that chapter in his memoirs). If he’s too discouraged to continue, the only surprising thing is that he held out so long.
But then, that being Washington, where little gets leaked without a reason, this “report” may be a way for him to regain some influence, via sympathetic public or media attention to the plight of the marginalized realists in the administration. The neocon ideologues’ standing is at low tide at the moment, so the time for such a leak may be propitious.
Or perhaps I’ve just been watching politics too closely for too long not to be cynical about how it works.
I think Powell is always regretting the moment he decided to NOT be a presidential candidate. He has suffered more under Bush than if he had been the president himself. Being used as a toadie and seeing Rummy and Wolfie going against him all the time.
Going to the UN with the WMD "proof" was very humiliating...
If he offered himself as an alternative to Bush... he would win easily. I have always supported the Democratic Party... but Powell has my respect and pity.Feh. Powell sold his soul and his integrity when he hopped aboard the Bush Iraq War Train Express. Instead of doing the honorable thing and refused to obey an immoral order, he caved in and participated in the selling of the Saddam-has-stockpiles-of-WMD bullshit.
At least the samurai had the courage to commit seppuku when they dishonored themselves.
Well imagine the Bush govt. without Powell trying to balance it ? So not to sure the solitary seppuku would have helped… a noisy and angry one would…