endorsement

After Colin Powell's thorough endorsement of Barack Obama yesterday on Meet the Press the reactions and analysis flew in the media and your comments. Here are some of the standout reactions:

• Michelle Malkin called "Powell’s embrace of Barack Obama is a triumph of hope over reality," but is careful to say she doesn't think it's an issue of race. "It’s Obama’s social liberalism, not his skin color, that attracts Powell most."
• Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan didn't come to the same conclusion, saying, "I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed," and "look would Colin Powell be endorsing Obama if he were a white liberal Democrat..." respectively.
• Over on Townhall, they link the endorsement to the importance Powell puts on the opinion of the media elite saying, "But what his endorsement highlights again is that this race isn't just about left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative. It's about elites vs. normal, everyday Americans."

To see what McCain had to say and what happens next, read more

Glee. This pictures of Colin Powell getting down with his soberly respectable self fill me with utter glee. The former secretary of state hip-hopped on stage with the Nigerian group Olu Maintain at the Africa Rising Festival at the Royal Albert Hall last night. After proving a suit and tie is no match for the funkiness of his moves, he turned more serious. He said that his own black identity matters now more than ever, and told the audience that with work and foreign investment, Africa could start to succeed like Asia and Eastern Europe.

Powell said:

I stand before you tonight as an African-American. Many people have said to me you became secretary of state of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African-American or that you are black, and I say, yes, so that we can remind our children. It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history. I didn't just drop out of the sky, people came from my continent in chains. . . .Asia is expanding, it created jobs for people, and Eastern Europeans are doing the same . . . it's now Africa's turn.

Christina and Seal were at the festival too, but Powell? Clearly the showstopper. Could he be ready for an encore? There are rumblings that he could be ready to endorse a candidate, and perhaps not the one from the party he served. Possible?

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Interesting, since we were just talking about Republicans turning away from McCain this morning, Christopher Hitchens has just released his endorsement for Obama. Hitchens says:

It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.

It's not an argument without measure, indeed the last paragraph is quite explicit as to why he made his decision. What do you make of his piece?

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Oprah may have gotten the raw end of the Barack Obama endorsement. Politico chronicled the almost instant dive in Oprah's likability ratings since she endorsed Obama. Apparently pollsters have been scientifically gathering public opinion of Oprah for decades, just like they do for world leaders.

In January 2007, 74 percent of Americans had a favorable impression of the queen of daytime television, a sky high number she had sustained for years. Well, when Oprah endorsed Obama in August 2007 her numbers slipped to 66 percent. When she began to stump for Obama in December 2007, they dropped again to 55 percent, her lowest rating ever.

While Oprah's soaring popularity had no where to go but down, the fact that her numbers began to dip right after she dipped into politics signals some connection. Can you admire Oprah's decision to express something she's passionate about even if you don't agree with her politics? Would Oprah be more popular if she pretended not to have an opinion just like everyone else?

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Governor Bill Richardson, former energy secretary in the Clinton administration, has given his coveted endorsement to Barack Obama. In his endorsement statement released this morning, Richardson said,

“I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America’s moral leadership in the world. As a presidential candidate, I know full well Sen. Obama’s unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation.”

The nation’s only Hispanic governor, Richardson could provide Obama with help among Hispanic voters, who have been steadily voting for Hillary Clinton in the primaries so far.

Shown here together at Sen. Harkin's annual steak fry in Iowa last summer, the pair will undoubtedly have lots of non-meat-based time to spend together. Richardson is said to be heading out to make a formal announcement an Obama fundraising event in Portland, OR, today.

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If an endorsement falls in Hillary Clinton's forest on the same day Barack Obama gives a huge speech about race, does it make a sound? If it does, it's muffled at best.

Yesterday Representative John Murtha (D — PA) endorsed Hillary Clinton, the first superdelegate to line up behind her since her victories in the last big primaries. The endorsement is key for a number of reasons:

• Murtha is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He created a stir in 2005 by calling for an end to the war in Iraq, and in his endorsement stated that Clinton has "a similar position" on the conflict. This is significant backing given Obama's reliance on his 2002 speech against the war and his subsequent attacks on Clinton's war vote. Having Murtha's approval on her Iraq position and plan strengthens her cause.

But wait, that's not all! Please read more

Rolling Stone has a giant crush on Barack Obama. The magazine endorsed Barack Obama. This is the first time in its history it has issued a primary season endorsement. Here's how the ode to Obama begins:

The tides of history are rising higher and faster these days. Read them right and ride them, or be crushed. And then along comes Barack Obama, with the kinds of gifts that appear in politics but once every few generations. There is a sense of dignity, even majesty, about him, and underneath that ease lies a resolute discipline. It's not just that he is eloquent — with that ability to speak both to you and to speak for you — it's that he has a quality of thinking and intellectual and emotional honesty that is extraordinary.

The strong endorsement also calls Hillary Clinton a capable and personable senator, but regrets that her campaign represents everything that makes "us so discouraged about our politics." Check out the entire endorsement tittled "A New Hope." You can grab a hard copy on tomorrow's newsstands.

Does this type of dramatic endorsement impact you? If not, perhaps it still represents a sentiment shared by many Americans.