Endorsements

Two weeks away from the Presidential election, I figured it was time for me to announce my candidate’s endorsement. Let the record show that I’m not endorsing anyone. However, since I believe that if you don’t exercise your right to vote, you don’t have any say or right to argue how things are being done by the elected officials, I will vote. Neither candidate can ever support 100% of your own personal agenda so you have to choose who best fits your model of what the office of President requires. I will cast my vote for John McCain but I will do so reluctantly. I’m not a rabid Republican Party fiend or Right Wing extremist. But, I am not and never will be a Socialist Liberal Democratic Party supporter.

In my case, I am choosing the lesser of two evils. Truly saddening is it not? Given our country’s current woes and economic standing, we are given two men to choose from that cannot invigorate enough voters to break a basic split down the middle of our country? Are we all that different? Sure, I will bet that come Election Day, the Electoral College will show a landslide victory for Obama and thus he will be anointed our country’s savior. But, when it comes down to it, the voting public will likely be closer to being split down the middle than a 75% for and 25% against vote. For every Obama supporter, you will find a McCain supporter. The Electoral College vote will not show that distinction.

Anyway, back to my topic of endorsements. This weekend and through most of yesterday, we were treated with the ground shaking, earth shattering, monumental news release that former Secretary of State Colin Powell is endorsing Barack Obama as his choice for the next President of the United States. After the vacuum inducing announcement has subsided and with oxygen returning to the room, my lungs can now provide my bloodstream enough oxygen and my consciousness has returned. I think I may have hit my head on the “Duh!” stick on my way down.

Seriously, did ANYONE truly believe Powell would put his political weight behind McCain or ANYONE in the Republican Party at this time? Powell felt the brunt of the Iraq war fiasco while in office during the Bush administration. He was one of the leaders pushing the WMD information forward and asking for votes. After the determination that our intelligence was faulty, Powell lost almost all credibility and thus left his post as Secretary of State as Bush entered his second term. Powell laid low, healed his wounds, and waited for the opportunity to deal as big a blow against those who made him look foolish. That time was and is now.

With about two weeks to go until we vote and with the campaigns winding down, Powell has chosen to cast his lot behind Obama. No more debates, no more major humps to overcome, just hold it steady until the finish line and it’s over. Powell’s announcement was one of the remaining few bullets the Obama campaign had to turn the tables versus McCain. It has been speculated for months that Powell was endorsing Obama, but the announcement did not come until after all the major campaign hurdles had been cleared. He was their shiny silver bullet to mitigate, nullify, and destroy any momentum McCain may have had after the final Presidential debate.

Powell is nothing more than a figurehead, a puppet, and a past figure of what went wrong and not what went right. With Powell choosing the “enemy” over his past alliances, it provided a supposed watershed moment for the Obama campaign. His announcement means absolutely nothing to me. Just as newspaper after newspaper endorses Obama, it means nothing. I equate Powell’s announcement with the support Paris Hilton and Alec Baldwin provide for the Obama campaign… this is publicity and nothing more.

Are there any other glowing endorsements coming Obama’s way? I’m sure there will be. Next thing I know, I’ll be reading that Oprah is going to be part of Obama’s administration when elected. Maybe even Hillary will be offered a position within his administration. She is in a tough position though. When he gets elected and if things go well, her window of opportunity will be closed because he’ll become a two term President. If she thinks he will fail, she will decline any potential job and run against him again in the next Democratic Primary. That is a story I’m interested in. The Clinton name in the Democratic Party has major weight and if she is without a job in his administration after nearly BEATING him for the nomination, something is worth thinking about there.

So, I’m voting, but I’m not endorsing. Don’t vote and you don’t get to argue. Don’t vote and you don’t get to complain.