Powell Endorsement a Factor?

So Colin Powell did what many expected him to do, endorse Barack Obama. Yet it was the way he did so that spoke volumes about where this campaign is now, little more than two weeks away. Say what you will about the former Secretary of State. His words on Meet the Press Sunday should resonate far beyond the current election. The McCain people, as expected, went on the Sunday talk show circuit to downplay the importance of the powell endorsement. If the best they could come up with is yet another reference to Joe the Plumber, they ought to pack it in.

It wasn't just Colin Powell calling Barack Obama a transformational figure. In fact, it wasn't for the most part what he said about Obama at all. It was his forthright condemnation of religious intolerance that sticks in the mind. Powell mentioned the fact that Obama critics, some of them at McCain-Palin rallies, continue to promote the lie that Obama is a Muslim. But he went further. He asked a fundamental question that hasn't been posed nearly often enough during the current election cycle. What exactly is wrong with being a Muslim?

Colin Powell said demonizing Muslims isn't what America is all about. He used a single example of a woman at Arlington National Cemetery grieving for her son, an American born Muslim who was killed in action in Iraq. That example was worth a hundred Joe the Plumbers. It should give pause to reflect on just what we're prepared to do to win an election. Colin Powell served the last three Republican presidents. He himself is a lifelong Republican. No one can argue he made the endorsement for racial reasons. That's just not Colin Powell.

He may be pilloried for the rest of his life for that speech he gave at the United Nations. He acknowledged he got it wrong on Meet the Press. But Colin Powell got it right when it comes to this election.

Will Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama make a difference in the upcoming election? You tell me.