Former Secretary of State Colin Powell had some words of praise today for Democratic Senator Barack Obama on ABC. Via USA Today’s blog:
“I’m looking at all three candidates,” former secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, said during a pre-recorded interview with Diane Sawyer for today’s Good Morning America. “I know them all very, very well. I consider myself a friend of each and every one of them. And I have not decided who I will vote for yet.” Powell said some of the things said over the years by Rev. Jeremiah Wright are “deplorable,” and he praised the way Barack Obama has handled the controversy over the senator’s former pastor. “I think that Sen. Obama handled the issue well,” Powell said. “He didn’t look the other way. He didn’t wait for the, for the, you know, for the storm to go over. He went on television, and I thought, gave a very, very thoughtful, direct speech. And he didn’t abandon the minister who brought him closer to his faith.”
He doesn’t sound on the same wavelength as Rush, Sean or many conservatives. And if Obama is the nominee and (as expected) the GOP uses the Wright issue, could this be the year when Powell formally breaks with the GOP political establishment?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.