Powell systematically neutralized GOP endgame strategy

WASHINGTON — Colin Powell demonstrated his eponymous "Powell Doctrine" of overwhelming force on Sunday when he endorsed Barack Obama on "Meet the Press." The one-time 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."

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

On the attempt by 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 Senator 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: