Current Event #5

This week's current event is from an article I found on msnbc.com by Alex Johnson titled "Powell endorses Obama for president."

We all are familiar with Colin Powell as the former Secretary of State and retired General of the U.S. Army. He was considered to most likely be the first African-American candidate to be elected president for many years.On Sunday, he criticized his own Republican Party of being too narrowly focused on the issues in this election, saying that they've been more focused on personal attacks against Obama. He also said that at first, he thought that either candidate would have made a good president, but seeing as how the Republican party has been campaigning, that sparked questioning towards McCain's judgment. Selecting Sarah Palin to be his running mate was a shiny example of that; Powell doesn't consider her to be ready for the presidency and Joe Biden would be ready on day one.

Powell said that he was "troubled" by the false intimations by the Republican party that Obama was Muslim when in reality, he has always been Christian. He said that those intimations were not only insulting to Obama but to all Muslims. Recently they've also put an emphasis on his relationship with William Ayers. Obama said in a recent interview that he welcomes Powell's support and would like to discuss any role, if any were available, to him if he were elected President. McCain said that despite of this endorsement, he has always admired and respected Colin Powell and that they just have a respectful disagreement. Powell said that he was hesitant at first to electing an African-American and that it would be "electrifying" to the world, but after watching both campaigns closely, he decided that Obama would be a transformational figure and that is what we Americans need for the future.

I would definitely say that I share the same opinions as Colin Powell. At first I really wasn't sure who was going to be a better president, so I called myself independent. But after watching the presidential and vice presidential debates, reading a few news articles, and keeping an eye on the campaigning, I would definitely say that Barack Obama has my complete support. The attacks have gone way out of line and I feel like I know Obama's flaws through the Republican campaign ads than what McCain has planned for the future. I think that Obama has a more open mind to change that is what we need to turn the past eight years around.