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Legal Commentary

: Balkinization

Colin Powell tries to put things right on the right

By Jack M. Balkin

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Here are two interviews with Colin Powell: In the first he endorses Barack Obama and explains why he believes the GOP and the McCain campaign have misunderstood the national mood by attempting to make the presidential campaign about Bill Ayres and engaging in a whispering campaign about whether Obama is a secret Muslim. Powell's response: "Why do we care if someone is a Muslim? We are all Americans" and his moving account of a mother visiting the grave of a U.S. soldier, an observant Muslim who fought and died for his country, should be enough to shame any and everyone who has engaged in this sort of fear mongering, bigoted rhetoric in the past.

In the second clip Powell denounces the McCain campaign and, more generally, the GOP for attempting to brand Obama first as a friend of terrorists and now as a socialist. (Apparently, "socialism" is the new terrorism.).

In both of these clips Powell calmly takes apart the jingoistic politics of fear that the GOP mastered in previous elections. Hearing Powell speak so calmly and with such force makes one wonder why this brand of politics had any traction in the past. The answer, it appears, is that not enough people were willing to stand up and denounce it, as Powell does, as irrelevant and inappropriate. They were not willing to exercise the same degree of courage and self-assurance as Colin Powell.

I have always admired Powell and was deeply disappointed when he allowed himself to be used at the United Nations to make the case for war in Iraq. But these two clips show why so many people admire him.

For a little background-- and a great deal of contrast-- here is Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann explaining to Chris Matthews about the presence of anti-American elements in the country-- including in the United States Congress-- that need to be exposed: