And, no, I don't think race has anything to do with it, although I suspect his shabby treatment at the hands of Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. may have played a role - and understandably so. I thought the Bush Administration made a huge mistake by alienating a great American hero like Gen. Powell.

I am about as democrat as you get and I never thought or ever heard Powell being slammed for being republican, he was well respected among democrats. It was only when he sat and feed the world a bunch of lies at the UN that caused me to lose respect for him. I didn't think he was alienated out of the Bush Administration, I think he is a man of honor and realized he was being feed lies and had, had enough and left.  

Here is the McCain of today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-crONNOrjMs&eurl=http://w ww.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/19/two-gop-senators-denounce_n _135919.html

More words from a pretty smart guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh_c5bbvmqc

here is one of the issues he addressed, another pretty republican woman who graduated from the Ann Coulter Charm School.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/17/gop-rep-channels-mc carthy_n_135735.html

Looking at this map I am not so confident that Obama is going to win..:(

Look here.

**********************************

McCain would need to win all the toss-ups AND more than half of the "Dem leaners" to have a shot.  While it's definitely not "in the bag" for Obama, McCain has the tougher road right now in trying to get electoral votes.

I'm predicting 337 electoral votes for Obama in then end.

The photo that inspired Colin Powell.

My local paper, the DAILY PRESS, has endorsed, to the surprise of everyone who has been accusing them of being a pro-Obama, left wing paper, McCain.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-ed_presendorsement _edit_1019oct19,0,1073095.story

"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation."
-- Sarah Palin, in North Carolina

To Matt Reed:

Regarding the distinction I was drawing a few pages back: my bad.  The benefit of my doubt was wasted.

I tell you, Mike, I was stunned...caught completely off guard. For months, conservatives have railed against the paper, accusing them of giving more favorable press and better, more extensive coverage to Obama. I would Imagine a lot of jaws hit the floor when they saw that yesterday.

Also, the picture you just posted reminds me....those of you with HBO, take an hour and watch SECTION 60 ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY. Dreadfully sad and outrageously angering at the same time.

http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETA IL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=654928

You know what we need?  When I say "we", I mean America... after this is all said and done, and Obama's in the White House, we need to collectively, as a whole, do a big national "tsk tsk" to all these lunatics who are talking about "pro-America" and "anit-America" and all that.

Like in the wake of McCarthy, when America woke up, hung-over and covered in dead-hooker blood and went "My god, what have I done?"  We need another of those moments.  Like - I'm not saying any sort of reverse witch hunts - that's exactly what we don't need.  These people shouldn't be punnished for their views - that's un-American.  But America itself needs a Civics 101 lesson.  We need to be reminded that we're ALL Americans.  Anyone running for the office of Presidency is obviously pro-American.  Anyone who cares about the issues is obviously Pro-American.  That's why they care.  If you have a problem with something America has done, you're not being Anti-American - the Anti-Americans would support our mistakes!  You want to fix things because you're PRO-American.

We need Walter Cronkite to come out of retirement, sit us all on his knee and explain the Constitution to us in kind fatherly tones.  We should not stand for this crap of people calling their fellow citizens "un-American". 

I think the best way to deal with that is when you hear it, look sternly at them - make eye-contact, shake your head and say "tsk tsk" and shake your finger.  It should be a shame issue.  People should be ashamed by this behavior, these attitudes. 

(I fully expect people to reply to this with "tsk tsk".  Ha ha I get it... but seriously, think about the point.)