Jessica

Vozel

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October 21, 2008

Why Colin Powell’s Obama Endorsement is Important

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a lifelong Republican, endorsed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Sunday for president.

And in so doing, he’s reignited a few conversations in the political arena. 

First, we are again bombarded with a newly energized analysis of race and campaigning. Rush Limbaugh, for example, wrote of the endorsement, "Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race. OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with.” George Will suggested something similar, but in gentler terms. Colin Powell has answered these charges by saying that if he were voting based on race, he would have supported Obama from the outset instead of contributing to John McCain’s campaign. Rather, he says, it was the negative turn in McCain’s campaign that turned him off to it.

Pundits, particularly conservatives in this case, are once again confounded by the idea that a black man could support another black man for reasons other than race. This “voting your race” analysis has trickled down to those whose opinions don’t mean quite as much as Powell’s.  Inevitably, statistics are regurgitated that show Obama is favored by 90 percent of African American voters. Never mind that African Americans have historically voted Democratic (86 percent went for Bill Clinton during his presidential bid; 90 percent for Al Gore in 2000). Because a highly regarded Republican has chosen to support a liberal, conservatives are searching for reasons that dull the impact of his choice. 

Second, pundits are analyzing how much Obama has to gain from Powell’s endorsement, when Powell is still associated in the voter’s mind with the failed Bush Administration and its flawed foreign policies. Powell was not a flawless leader, certainly, but his national security credentials are nothing to discount. 

But perhaps the most important discussion to come out of Powell’s endorsement is one relating to the construction of “otherness” in this campaign. For the last couple weeks, the McCain campaign has been relentlessly painting Obama as a loose thread in the fabric of our great nation – a pal to terrorists, a socialist, a man who sees America “a little differently” and, from the mouths of McCain’s supporters, a Muslim.

That this last term should be slipped in unnoticeably among the others is problematic. While the two sides squabble over Obama’s background, they forget to ask an important question: So what if he was a Muslim? 

McCain, at a rally during which an audience member called Obama an “Arab,” did not ask, “So what if he is?” Instead, he called Obama a “decent family man,” as if the two terms are opposed to one another. Even Obama supporters, stereotypically tolerant and politically correct liberals, are quick to jump to Obama’s defense – he is and always was a Christian! – without considering what their defensiveness indicates. 

Colin Powell recognized this problem, and called it out as part of his endorsement, saying, “. . . the correct answer is, [Obama] is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

To illustrate his point, Powell then referred to Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, a Muslim-American who fought and died for America in Iraq. The implicit message is this: Why should we send a man to war to fight for his country if he doesn’t have the respect of that country’s people? 

Bravo, Colin. This, more than anything else, needed to be said. Yes, the McCain camp is wrong in saying that Barack Obama is something he’s not, and yes, Barack Obama was raised by his Christian grandmother. We know all of this by now. We didn’t need a refresher of these facts.  What we really needed was a reminder that our nation was built as one of religious tolerance, and Powell gave us that reminder. 

While we continue to speculate how exactly Powell’s endorsement will help or hurt Obama, we should also praise Powell for saying what Obama and McCain have been afraid to say for fear of hurting their campaigns.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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