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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

A Tale of Two Endorsements

The Military Times released its latest polling results of military personnel from all branches of the military regarding the upcoming Presidential election. The results are in and they are overwhelming. The military wants John McCain to be their Commander in Chief. The polling, measuring a breadth of ranks, units, and military divisions, found that by a nearly three to one margin the military wants John McCain to be its next Commander in Chief. Why should this matter? On many levels it shouldn't. The only reason it should matter is because you will likely hear little about the results of this poll.

On the other hand, Colin Powell came out on Sunday and endorsed Barack Obama. Now, I pointed the other day that I was disgusted by the manner in which the conservative media demonized and marginalized both Colin Powell and his endorsement of Barack Obama. That said, what is truly amazing is the utter lack of context that the MSM has created with Colin Powell's endorsement. Unless you watch Fox News or read conservative blogs, you are rather unlikely to know that this poll was even taken. Yet, MSM commentators are all over the place making it seem as though Colin Powell's endorsement means that Barack Obama is just as ready to be Commander in Chief as John McCain.

Of course, if you listened to a pundit from the MSM like Eugene Robinson, you would get the idea that Colin Powell speaks for everything military.

Colin Powell demonstrated his eponymous "Powell Doctrine" of overwhelming force on Sunday when he endorsed Barack Obama on Meet the Press. The one-time chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff systematically marshaled his assets to neutralize the Republican endgame strategy, which is to suffuse the air around Obama with a vague mist of terrorism, socialism and "otherness."

Powell was so definitive that it was easy to forget the disconnect: Obama made his reputation with a speech in 2002 warning against war in Iraq, while it was Powell who went before the United Nations and used his credibility to build support for the Iraq invasion.

Powell told Tom Brokaw that he still believes that war was the right course of action, based on what he and other officials knew -- or thought they knew -- at the time. He said he believes the war was mishandled. And he said he still opposes a "deadline" for withdrawing U.S. troops, though he added that a "timeline" for withdrawal is beginning to emerge.

That would be a fair summation of John McCain's position on Iraq, not Obama's. Powell framed his endorsement largely in terms of how McCain, Sarah Palin and their supporters have conducted the campaign against Obama -- and what that conduct says about McCain's judgment. It was hard not to conclude that Powell is offended by some of the Republican tactics and that he has decided to fire back in a way that Obama cannot.



In Robinson's estimation, the only one worthy of making a referendum on the Iraq War is Colin Powell himself. The men and women in uniform, if you read someone like Eugene Robinson, are totally irrelevant as far as opinions on the war they are now fighting. Of course, it should be pointed out that John McCain also received the endorsement of four previous Secretaries of State and 200 Generals, but again, none of their endorsements mean anything if you read the MSM.

Personally, I don't believe that any endorsement carries any weight. Everyone should make their own minds. They shouldn't look to someone else to make it for them. What is utterly despicable is the total lack of context that the MSM brought to the endorsement of Barack Obama by Colin Powell. While hundreds of thousands of current fighting men and women pick John McCain overwhelmingly to be their next Commander in Chief, those endorsements won't even be recognized by the MSM. Yet, the endorsement of one previous General will be made into some sort of game changer, as if no one that's ever served in the military would have endorsed Barack Obama.

The endorsement of Colin Powell should have been given its due, however so should the endorsement of four other Secretaries of State and 200 former Generals. Furthermore, so should have the hundreds of thousands of current military personnel. That one endorsement was isolated because it was the one that fit the worldview of the MSM is further proof of their blatant bias and corruption.

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