I have had my head down for a couple of days working on something important on short deadline so I'm a little bit late to the conversation. But I think I can add a few relevant new thoughts. First, if you have not actually watched the video, please take seven minutes to watch this study in clear thinking and candor.
I am a Democrat, but a fairly moderate one. In the course of voting, I have occasionally crossed the aisle for the right guy. This includes Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, for example. In my life, however, I have only seriously considered voting for two Republicans. The first was John McCain in 2000 and the second was Colin Powell who never came close to getting the nomination of his party. I always thought he would be the first Afro American to be nominated by a major party.
How ironic to watch Powell give the most articulate endorsement for a presidential candidate I have ever heard. Like me, Powell has been a longtime admirer of McCain and like me, the guy who's running for president does not appear to be the McCain we both admired.
But for me, there is more to this story. Colin Powell, was the reasonable voice in the first Bush administration. At a time, when day-after-day, some of us who consider ourselves moderate in politics discovered the member-after-member of the first Bush administration was far to the right of moderate in their ideology; that we learned that the president's vows to be the education president turned out to be a fabrication, when we learned that their was nothing compassionate about Bush's conservatism, Powell seemed to represent the voice of reason, the thoughtful guy, who caught insert some sense in this regime.
But sometimes the best of people steer those who trust them in the wrong direction. When the Iraq issue took America by surprise. Powell was the voice that sold the moderate Americans on the war. When he stood before the United Nations and showed what appeared to be compelling evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and were preparing to use them, I was among those who for a brief period of time that I will always regret followed Powell's argument into supporting this obscenity of a war.
I never forgave Powell for that. Not until I watch that video. I forgive him because this time I am certain he is leading people in the right direction. What was so compelling to me was that he just quietly told the truth and once again, I not only believe his words, I believe in him and I forgive him for what was a most egregious error on his part.
