Hypocrite for hire

Several years ago I argued with a friend because I thought Powell would be a great President and, if not, a good running mate for George Bush. My friend said that Powell was a self-promoting opportunist who used his race as a tool to get ahead in the military and kissed enough butts to eventually get appointed a four-star general, then kissed a few more of the right butts and got to be Secretary of State. Both of these appointments were thanks to George Bush, 1 and 2. My friend always insisted that Powell betrayed George Bush by the little ways he undermined the President with comments to the press on issues with which he disagreed. A notable one is Powell’s taking sides with the University of Michigan’s stand on Affirmative Action, in this case just another word for racial prejudice since the university wanted to reject high qualified white applicants to accept lower qualified blacks. Powell is a Republican, a one-time potential McCain running mate, and long-time colleague and supposed friend of McCain. It seems he is the hypocrite my friend claimed; unwilling to take the heat that the Black community would emit if he didn’t endorse Obama. He is lamely and dishonestly trying to justify his endorsement with transparent B.S. about Obama being more capable of getting us out of the economic funk – a pretty big leap of faith considering Obama has nary a clue about economics and plans to raise taxes and handcuff trade which will destine us for a bad recession. Oh yes, there is a quid pro quo for sweetener: B.O. has said Powell will have a place in his administration.