Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama was less a surprise than the fruition of what many in both parties anticipated for months. It was, nonetheless, perfectly timed to supercharge the Obama campaign’s afterburner wrap to Election Day. Mid-summer, an Obama campaign official predicted that its strategy would keep the race close until the final push where Obama would blow McCain out of the water with the electoral version of “shock and awe”. Welcome to shock and awe.
General Colin L. Powell – former National Security Adviser to George H. W. Bush, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Commander of Coalition Forces in the Gulf War, Secretary of State to George W. Bush, and a Republican of international prominence commanding bipartisan respect if not admiration. For Barack Obama it doesn’t get much better. For John McCain it doesn’t get much worse. To deter pundits from parsing his words, General Powell laid out in the clearest manner possible why he will vote for Barack Obama, one of which included ready to lead the country on day one.
This is big even for those sadly included in the voter bloc of the euphemistically dubbed “low information voters”. Yes, folks – the pundits agree that the ignorant comprise their own demographic.* The Powell endorsement gets through to virtually every eligible voter in a campaign that has registered huge numbers of new, impassioned voters, has ordinary folks talking about little else, and has energized the country to a greater degree than any election in recent memory.
So a heads up on surprises. You’ve seen them and neither is a surprise. General Powell lighting the match igniting the Obama afterburner is one tactic in Barack Obama’s strategy to win the election. Yes, Senator McCain, Senator Obama does know the difference between tactics and strategy.
* Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” created a pie chart displaying the demographics for the undecided bloc. 45% of undecideds in Jon’s pie were in the “STUPID” slice.
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