Everything else has failed? HUH? I think with the exception of healthcare he has basically gotten what he has wanted.... time will tell on healthcare
There's some definite revisionist history going on here. No way Powell, a pro-choice black man, wins a Republican primary contest.
Reminds me of that Chris Rock joke where people claiming to vote for Powell would be the nice and right thing to say, just like they'd say they'd be an organ donor, but not necessarily do it.
Why do you have your kids in a public school if you have a problem with them hearing the Pres?? That makes sense???
I see you had to add "pro-choice" to make your case. I see what you did there. Anyone pro-choice would have trouble winning a Republican primary, regardless of race. See: Giuliani, Rudy. Anyways, according to Wiki, in the 1996 primaries, he was leading the New Hampshire polls for the GOP nomination, and he won the New Hampshire VP primary on write-in votes.
Please provide details about this. I'd like to hear about how the Republican party establishment all but assumed that Colin Powell was the appropriate choice to usurp a sitting Republican president in George H.W. Bush. I actually remember 1992 pretty vividly, given the convention was in Houston at the time (and so was I) - I remember the Pat Robertson wing of the party declaring a culture war and basically sealing their own eventual doom - this whole "Powell over G HW B" thing is not in my recollection.
This was a theory for the most recent election, that people told pollsters they were voting for Obama so they wouldn't look racist. But they did, in fact, vote for Obama in the end.
Sorry. Brain fart. It was in 1996, when George H.W. Bush was leaving office. I do distinctly recall most conservatives clamoring for Powell to run in 1996. He declined and we wound up with a 175 year old Bob Dole. We all know how that turned out.
Unfortunately you didn't (and don't) hang with the type of conservatives that control the party, not then or now. I would take a Powell-Republican party seriously. The people in charge since Reagan brought in the religious right and Lee Atwater made his name with Bush in '88 make that totally impossible.
Damn. I have to stop posting late at night. I caught myself this time. Powell's would be run was in 1996, 4 years after Bush lost to President Clinton. It was thought by some that Powell (based on his perceived popularity during the Gulf War) would be able to beat the juggernaut that was Bill Clinton. I am done for the evening. My brain has now melted. I will try again tomorrow.
Ralph Reed was a pretty prominent voice during that era, but Powell would have done quite well (at least within his own party) had his party shown any sort of inclination toward pushing him in 1995. By the time the winter of 1995-96 came along, it was obvious he had little support within his own party (not the polling nation, mind you), and the tide started to change by the time he officially ruled himself out. This was right before the Republican Party essentially started to work as a faith-based organization. And after the embarrassing debacle that was the Dole/Kemp ticket (with Clinton winning soundly despite parsing everything with "and I have great respect for Senator/former Senator Dole"), the JC types swiftly moved in.
I have to disagree. As loathsome as Atwater was, he seemed entirely secular in every way besides acting as a devil incarnate. And I never got the feeling that HW Bush was leaning on religious fundamentalism as he flailed about in 1992, even in the final days when he was making a right ass of himself. And Dole never seemed to take to their message, or embrace it in any significant way, despite reaching out to Ralph Reed and Falwell quite a bit. It really seemed to take off in 1999 when the party galvanized itself behind Clinton's personal failings, and the idea of an ultra-lib in Bradley (full disclosure, whose campaign I contributed to) and someone they detested (even if he was distressingly moderate) in Gore bounding ahead in the polls.
Adding pro-choice to Powell is like strapping an anchor to someone walking the plank. It doesn't change their fate, just makes it much quicker. McCain won NH but was crushed by Bush in the Southern primaries. If Powell had somehow survived the change from "image of Powell as a candidate" to "actual candidate who has to express opinions on a variety of issues and build an organization" and won NH, he would have died the death of 1,000 cuts in later primaries. Look at what W's campaign did to McCain's daughter in SC and tell me with a straight face Powell ever had a chance to be the Republican nominee. You can't.
I would have, but not anymore. His intentional, craven, and water-carrying lies to the UN greatly diminished his standing. I think he did yeoman's work for America fighting the rear-guard action against Cheney and his acolytes, but he threw it all away on that one speech. Tragic.
I think they find it easy to believe Obama is a socialist because he's different. Not just black but with a name like Barack Obama. I do think that if Colin Powell were President they would behave like this. Look at how Cheney, and Rush Limbaugh have treated Powell since the election. I have no doubt that they could make up some stuff like socialist, or whatever other crazy stuff, and a certain portion of the population who hasn't had much exposure to different cultures, people, etc. except what they are told, would believe it.
