First: it may very well blunt McCain's turnaround after he had managed to gain some momentum this week - showing the old John McCain on the David Letterman Show and during the Alfred E. Smith Dinner, and putting in a reasonable debate performance (video at the bottom);
Second: it will be media fodder for at least a couple of days, keeping the subject on Obama and his growing list of endorsements by conservatives;
Lastly: Powell made a very solid case for why it is important to repair America's tattered image abroad, and further more, why Obama is the right person to do it.
And, not only did Powell endorse Obama, he indicted McCain's negative campaign tactics, which I will get to here in a later post, and derided the Republican establishment for "narrowing" its focus to more distracting issues when the important issues are those like the economy, energy and national security. And, it would seem to me that quite a few republican are feeling the same way.
"I have some concerns about the direction the party has taken in recent years. It has moved more to the right than I would like to see it, but that's a choice the party makes," Powell said.
He later added that "the party has moved even further to the right and Gov. Palin has indicated and even further rightward shift. I would be concerned about two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that is what we would be looking at in a McCain-Palin administration."
There will no doubt be some upset Republicans in the wake of Powell's endorsement and, already, conservative media types are begging the race question - since Powell, too, is half African American. The Drudge Report's first headline on the subject, even with all that Powell had to say, was that he had said it "wasn't about race." In fairness to the folks at Drudge, they did not right the story, just the headline. http://www.drudgereport.com/
Others were more direct, outright suggesting that Powell is racist. The perfect example is Rush Limbaugh (surprise) who asked which "white liberals" Powell had endorsed.
The Politico reported on a Limbaugh email which stated: "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."
Fox News, meanwhile, gave the story a dinky headline in the corner of the front page, prefacing the story by mentioning that Powell had helped to sell the Iraq war to the American people - a subtle stab at his judgment perhaps. Also note in the right column of this page where I have top headlines that Fox does not have a single story about the endorsement on their news feed.
Update: before I could even post this entry, Fox News buried the story - it no longer appears on the front page.
As I pointed out in my previous (and first) post on Friday, McCain's debate performance had cooled his "burning hemorrhoids" and helped him recover a few points in the polls. Well now, it would seem, he is having another flare-up. It is not so much that people will be swayed by Powell's endorsement, but rather, it serves as further evidence that McCain is scaring away the more thoughtful moderate Republicans, while, Obama continues to solidify his commander in chief credentials.
This endorsement won't move the polls, but, it will stabilize them in a way that may prevent McCain from gaining a momentum advantage. In essence, Powell just granted moderate Republicans permission to vote for Obama despite his perceived lack of foreign policy experience, and, more importantly, stole two to three days of media time for McCain to close the gap.
Mark Halperin of Time Magazine has an interesting take on just that:
"The decision is not only symbolic but, in terms of timing, one of great tactical importance. Powell is a brand unto himself in American politics, and clearly transcends the media's tendency to hype endorsements more than their actual importance to voters. However, the indisputable benefit that Powell brings Obama is that the former Secretary of State and general is sure to block out any chance McCain has of winning the next two or three days of news coverage, as the media swoons over the implications of the choice. It is simple political math: McCain has 15 days to close a substantial gap, and he will now lose at least one fifth of his total remaining time."
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