As had been widely anticipated, Colin Powell came on Meet the Press this morning (Washington Monthly has the video at the link) and endorsed Barack Obama for President. His reasons? In short, he felt that Obama demonstrated more leadership and thoughtful, objective analysis on the current economic crisis. He also noted the need for open discussion with with rest of the world and feels that Obama is the person to lead that conversation. We’ll have more here later today as additional opinions roll in.

Was this a case of “one black man endorsing another?” Powell says that if that were the case, he could have made this endorsement months ago. Don’t they disagree on the Iraq War? They do, but he’s looking to the future and not the past. Will Powell be campaigning for Obama? He will not. He’s just letting everyone know that he’s going to vote for the man.

Will this change minds in the middle? Time will tell.

UPDATE: Added link to the video of Powell’s endorsement at Washington Monthly.