Why Colin Powell's endorsement could matter

By GottaLaff

Everyone in the media is all abuzz about the impending endorsement of Barack Obama by Colin Powell. The talk is, he wouldn't be going on Meet the Press unless he had something important to say, and an endorsement of someone he's already been admiring publicly would qualify as a pretty important thing.

Washington Post's Chris Cillizza tells us why he thinks Powell could make a difference:

1. Turnabout is Fair Play. Powell is best known for his most recent job in government -- as the secretary of State for President George W. Bush. The idea that a high-ranking cabinet official in a Republican administration would come out for the Democrat is simply too juicy a story for the media to ignore.

2. The Most Popular Man in America? Powell, unlike almost no other official with ties to the Bush Administration, has retained remarkable popularity ratings. [...] A large part of Powell's appeal is his perceived bipartisanship [...] For a certain (not insubstantial) portion of the electorate, when Powell speaks, they listen. The Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll reinforces that fact; more than one in three voters said a Powell endorsement of Obama would make them more likely to vote for the Democrat.

3. Iraq, All Wrong. Powell has ... called [making the case for invading Iraq] a "blot" on his record [...] An endorsement of Obama, who built his candidacy on his early opposition to the conflict, would mark a clean break with the Bush Administration on the war and would add significant heft to Obama's argument that he alone possesses the judgment to lead the U.S. in a dangerous world.

4. The Final Straw. [O]ne of McCain's last hopes is that the the election turns back somehow to a foreign policy focus... [I]t would be hard for McCain to slam Obama's approach on the war if the Democrat had a Powell endorsement sitting in his back pocket.