Maybe Reihan Salam just wanted a title that would catch someone’s, anyone’s interest in the middle of July, when what he really wanted to talk about was market-based health care reform, but is there someone, anyone who imagines Gen. Colin Powell – who has managed to offend and betray more elements of the Republican coalition than anyone even knew existed – as a viable presidential candidate for a Republican Party remotely interested in, y’know, winning an election?
Someone, anyone other than Salam, that is:
Powell could be exactly the presidential candidate Republicans need. Consider Powell’s interview with John King on CNN’s State of the Union last weekend. For whatever reason–perhaps to preserve his reputation as an independent, above-the-fray voice–the former secretary of state raised serious questions about President Obama’s leadership. Powell is convinced that the president is expanding government too much and too quickly, a view he shares with the Republican base. Rather than couch his objections in ideological terms, Powell used the sober language of fiscal responsibility. He didn’t advocate limited government for its own sake, and he acknowledged that American voters consider the many issues the White House is tackling to be very important.
How… equable!… of Powell. Def the candidate we want if equability seems on the verge of sweeping the nation come Spring 2012…
Or maybe if Obama’s so bad off in 2012 that a 75-year-old man who’s never run and won a political campaign, and who would be looking for support amidst the splinters of his blasted party, can beat him, then some fiercer competition might turn up…
…and that’s about as much turbulence as this particular trial balloon can stand, in my estimation. As for the particular balloonist and his health care ideas, I think I may be ready to think about them seriously very soon, maybe even as soon as Prez Powell’s inauguration.
Comments 13
There was a time when Powell could have been a candidate for the Republicans.
Anyone who lived through the Bush administration might have noticed that Powell was spectacularly torpedoed.
July 13th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Well. At least he didn’t advocate limited government for its own sake.
Translation: stay on the same political course, but stroke our chins and look judicious about it.
July 13th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Yes, JED, thank Sauron he didn’t saying anything shocking like that. I woulda flipped my Whig.
BTW, when I say Whig, I like to exhale sharply, give it whoosh sound, “HWIK.” Know what I mean? It always puts me in the mood to discuss theoretical market-based modifications of Obamacare.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:10 am
Come to think of it, Colin Powell is the Heir Apparent of the Whig Faction. Makes him the national Heir-Whig.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:13 am
Second thought: Powell’s the Bhig-Whig. David Brooks might be the Heir.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:22 am
It makes you wonder: Where does the wig end and the hair begin?
July 14th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Nature abhors a vacuum. So do some rugs.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:36 am
This may be way too obvious, but don’t you get the feeling the some people want to color match? It’s Garanimals politics.
Unfortunately, it’s not hard to imagine that the Republican party would go outside the party for a presidential candidate. Colin Powell has all of John McCain’s fine qualities but one: he’s not even “in name only.”
And Colin did his own fair share of torpedoing: Scooter Libby has a record and has been disbarred for a non-crime, and Colin Powell knew the truth the whole time.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Barbara, how did Powell torpedo Libby?
July 14th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Fuster, because Powell knew that it was Armitrage and not Lilly who talked to Bob Novak and never lifted a finger.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I would think torpedoing Libby would be different from what I see here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR2006090701781.html
Is this inaccurate?
July 14th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
The Wash Post had an incentive to keep things quiet – Powell and State have always been good leakers of information for the Post, they needed their sources intact. Powell did in fact know that his guy was the leak (although it sure doesn’t seem like much of a leak to me regardless) and his silence while a fellow member of the President’s team was left to dangle in the wind while the dems went after Cheney seems the antithesis of courage. Powell is a coward, overly concerned about political viability. Then he endorses Obama in what was nothing more than a race based power play, showing him to be a racist to boot, and turning his back on a colleague who voiced support for most of the provisions he says the GOP must embrace to win elections.
Powell is done as a Republican. If you think McCain didn’t excite the conservative base (they stayed home, which added to Obama’s spread of victory) Powell would lose in a landslide to a Dem. If he ran as a Dem, I think he would motivate the GOP base to beat him. He is disliked that much.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:43 am
http://spectator.org/archives/2006/09/18/a-special-place-in-hell
July 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
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