Point taken.

As you correctly stated, as well as others, Powell was never much of a conservative, this didn’t just change this weekend. However, he is an expert on defense issues, thus his opinion should hold weight more than many other peoples on THIS issue.

If I have a lump in my neck and my doctor tells me that it is a malignant tumor and my neighbor’s wife tells me she thinks it is just a swollen gland from eating too many strawberries, these are not two equally credible “opinions”.

If my neighbor, or one of the hundreds of idiots on the radio and TV, tells me how we got into this financial crises and what we should/shouldn’t do to get out of it, I will consider this right along with Brittany Spear’s opinions. If Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Larry Summers, or Warren Buffet tell me their opinions I will have to think pretty hard about what they have to say. I still may end up disagreeing, but I promise that Ben Bernanke knows more about the economy than anybody that most of us know.

Colin Powell knows more about national defense than 99.5% of the population and his opinion is therefore more relevant. After careful thought though, you can still disagree with him, as the .5% of experts who know a lot still disagree with each other.

What a surprise, condescension from a PhD

So, what makes one person’s opinion better than another person’s opinion. afterall, they are both merely opinions? Who’s to say that Drew’s opinion is any less valid that Powell’s? Isn’t that what is great about this country, that opinions in a political arena have validity because we value all input into the political discourse in our society… unless of course we disagree with the shout-em-down loons…

As far as lies go (I’m assuming that’s th “L” word you were referring to, as opposed to the liberal L word), the first I recall in this campaign was Obama’s assertion that McCain wanted to keep us in a war in Iraq for 100 years. Obama has also lied about his own record and background repeatedly throughtout this campaign, but those lies are dismissed as those among us who are too dumb to understand just not fully comprehending what he was trying to tell us.

Folks have a right to vote for whomever they choose for whatever reason they choose, but I believe Powell, in his endorsement, confused John McCain and his campaign with wingnuts who have no association to the campaign. If McCain is to be saddled with the views of folks on the extreme right, then it is only fair that Obama should have to answer for those on the extreme left. Powell, sadly, is now more of a politician than a statesman. If he had endorsed McCain, that would have been nice, but it would not change my opinion of him since that opinion was not formed this week… of course, that’s just my opinion

From my experience with college students, the left is very vocal and the more conservative students I have met try to stay low key to keep the peace with their friends. It’s a shame that the debate in this country has become so ascerbic that many folks on campus with conservative views feel that their voices have been silenced out of fear of retribution, either from “friends” or professors. Are your experiences similar?

Keep the faith… politics in the US tends to be somewhat cyclical. 4 years of one-party government (if that is the result of this election) will likely create a backlash that will shift the country back to the right again…

Becky, there is wisdom in your words. Whoever is elected president, we need to support him. Unlike the loons who have attacked GWB for 4 years and who would insist he lied if he said the sky was blue, we need to be adults and help move our country forward. That’s not to say we should fall in line an compromise our values, but we need to dissent in a way that does not add to the poisonous atmosphere the left has created. Interesting that Powell did not at least acknowledge the negativity of the left.

Liberals think we all have a right to happiness and laziness, and that the government is the arbiter and distributor of that right. I thought the Reagan revolution put an end to this idea that the government can distribute our rights and our happiness. No matter how happy the government can make us, we are not free as long as the government controls us in such a way.

As Jefferson put it, the “pursuit of happiness” is an inalienable liberty. Suddenly we’ve started believing that we no longer have to persue happiness through private enterprise and self-determination, but that the government can provide it to us through welfare and handouts. What’s happened to our country? I’m a 19 year old university student, and I see what is happening, through indoctrination of students to actually believe far left ideology. University and public education now teaches children that we are entitled to things, that we deserve things we haven’t worked for, and haven’t earned. I really fear that our country is slipping away to socialism.