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 Much like Powell, Gabbard's political capital, clout, and influence was used to get those who were fully on board with a president's war of aggression (read: illegal invasion/attack) to give them the benefit of the doubt. For war-mongering, imperial-minded presidents, people like Powell and Gabbard are merely glossy accessories:

 

 In America, there are self-proclaimed Democrats who praise Colin Powell yet despise Condoleezza Rice, despite the fact that both of them pushed the same foreign policies while in the GW Bush Administration.

Colin Powell endorsing Barack Obama is to Joe Lieberman endorsing John McCain.

Between a big financial September and the endorsement of Colin Powell , Barack Obama and his supporters should be riding high (for the record, Obama has advised otherwise ). Most liberals and Democrats will say, "Powell betrayed us with his crappy argument for attacking Iraq. He's lost all credibility." Not entirely accurate. Sure, Powell used his reputation to convince many uninformed Americans that Iraq was the Legion of Doom. But back then we had no idea that behind the scenes Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were manipulating Powell via false intelligence information. More than any other prominent member of the First Bush 43 Term, Colin Powell was a loyal soldier, and that aspect of his personality was not going to make him revolt unless there was no doubt that people in the Administration were outright lying. I suspect that despite the alleged infighting (which happens in every administration), Powell simply didn't believe that there was enough evidence for him to...

Eugene Robinson on Bush and torture : " Bush's view of the world is based on the idea of American exceptionalism: that this country is unique, that its ideas and values are not just worthy or admirable but superior to any others ." Colin Powell on the same subject : " To say that we want to modify, clarify or redefine Common Article 3, which has not been modified for the 57 years of its history, I think adds to the doubt" [about U.S. morality]. Plus I believe that the legitimate concerns that the administration has can be dealt with in other ways ." I would hope that the worst thing Bush has in mind is take away the terrorist's Harry Potter books . And while I respect his decision of not going into specifics, the bottom line is Bush does not have the credibility to be taken at his word on this issue. You just can't trust that if he gets his way, there won't be a story in eight months about soldiers strangling prisoners with shoestring. And no on...