Colin Powell demonstrated his eponymous "Powell Doctrine" of overwhelming force on Sunday when he endorsed Barack Obama on "Meet the Press." The onetime chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff systematically marshaled his assets to neutralize the Republican endgame strategy, which is to suffuse the air around Obama with a vague mist of terrorism, socialism and "otherness."
Eugene Robinson

The general covered all lines of retreat and took no prisoners.

On the attempt by the GOP ticket's John McCain and Sarah Palin to use Obama's acquaintance with Vietnam-era radical William Ayers to suggest that Obama is somehow linked to terrorism: "This Bill Ayers situation that's been going on for weeks became something of a central point of the campaign. But Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist. Well, then, why do we keep talking about him? And why do we have these robo-calls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Sen. Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow Mr. Obama is tainted? What they're trying to connect him to is some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that's inappropriate."

Later in the interview with Tom Brokaw, Powell described these attacks as "demagoguery."

Obama couldn't have flatly accused the McCain campaign of painting him as a terrorist - imagine the howls of feigned injury from hardened Republican political operatives. But Powell is a prominent figure whom no one - not even Palin - could ever accuse of being insufficiently "pro-America."

On the campaign of lies, spread by whisper and e-mail, to convince people that Obama is a Muslim: "Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and might be associated with terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

Imagine if Obama had challenged these lies by saying, "What if I were a Muslim?" The Republican response would be, "See, he's all but admitting it." But Powell was free to speak this simple truth about American rights and values.

On the McCain-Palin attempt to make it seem as though Obama's policies represent some radical and dangerous leftward departure: "We need a president that will not just continue, even with a new face and with some changes and with some maverick aspects, who will not just continue, basically, the policies that we have been following in recent years. I think we need a transformational figure. ... And that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama."

Powell's most devastating assessment of the Republican ticket, in my estimation, came in this passage that begins with his view of how the candidates have handled the economic crisis: "In the case of Mr. McCain, I found that he was a little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we were having, and almost every day there was a different approach to the problem. And that concerned me, sensing that he didn't have a complete grasp of the economic problems that we had. And I was also concerned at the selection of Gov. Palin. She's a very distinguished woman, and she's to be admired; but at the same time, now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president. And so that raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made."

Obama and his surrogates have hardly been shy in highlighting McCain's confused response to the Wall Street meltdown. But they believe it would be politically dangerous to state the obvious about Palin, which is that she isn't remotely prepared to be vice president. Coming from Powell, who has spent so many hours with presidents and vice presidents in the Oval Office, it was a slam-dunk indictment of McCain's unreliable judgment.

To those who would say he is only supporting Obama as a fellow African American, Powell pointed out that if this were the criterion, then he could have made his endorsement months ago.

Overwhelming force. By the time the McCain people looked up, they were surrounded.

To comment, e-mail Eugene Robinson at eugenerobinson@washpost.com.

This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle

POWELL: Let’s be clear about something else, Bob, that gets a little confusing. There are really no additional troops. All we would be doing is keeping some of the troops who were there there longer and escalating or accelerating the arrival of other troops.

SCHIEFFER: Let me just ask you about that because… do we have the troops? You seem to be suggesting that we don’t.

POWELL: I’m suggesting that what general Shoemaker said the other day before a committee looking at the reserve and national guard, That the active army is about broken. General Shoemaker is absolutely right. All of my contacts within the army suggest that the army has a serious problem in the active force.

[Snip]

SCHIEFFER: Let’s… you’ve talked about… I take it you think that the 160,000 troops are not going to be any more successful than 140,000.

POWELL: Nobody has made the case to me that 140,000… I have not seen a case that persuades me that it would be better at 150 and 160. Frankly, that would take a surge that you have to pay for later by not having troops that can come in and replace some of the 140,000 there.