Obama has a role for Powell

WASHINGTON – Colin Powell will have a role as a top presidential adviser in an Obama administration, the Democratic White House hopeful said yesterday.

“He will have a role as one of my advisers,” Barack Obama said on NBC’s ‘Today’ in an interview aired yesterday, a day after Powell, a four-star general and President Bush’s former secretary of state, endorsed him. “Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that’s a good fit for him, is something we’d have to discuss,” Obama said.Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that’s relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator.Obama has struggled to establish his foreign policy credentials against GOP candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, former prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.In the NBC interview, Obama said Powell did not give him a heads-up before he crossed party lines and endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on the network’s ‘Meet the Press’ a day earlier.In that interview, Powell called Obama a “transformational figure” in the nation’s history and expressed disappointment in some of McCain’s campaign tactics.But, Powell said, he didn’t plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before the November 4 election.”I won’t lie to you, I would love to have him at any stop,” Obama said with a grin.Monday.”Obviously, if he wants to show up he’s got an open invitation.”Powell expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain’s campaign, his choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a running mate and their decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama’s ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers, saying “it goes too far.”McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell’s endorsement, saying it wasn’t a surprise, that the two share mutual respect and are longtime friends.The Republican from Arizona pointed out on Sunday that he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A.Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.At a boisterous rally on Sunday, Obama said McCain was “out of ideas and almost out of time.”He and his aides appear so confident of his prospects that apart from a brief stop in Madison, Wisconsin, next Thursday, Obama currently has no plans during the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.Nampa-AP”Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that’s a good fit for him, is something we’d have to discuss,” Obama said.Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that’s relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator.Obama has struggled to establish his foreign policy credentials against GOP candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, former prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.In the NBC interview, Obama said Powell did not give him a heads-up before he crossed party lines and endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on the network’s ‘Meet the Press’ a day earlier.In that interview, Powell called Obama a “transformational figure” in the nation’s history and expressed disappointment in some of McCain’s campaign tactics.But, Powell said, he didn’t plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before the November 4 election.”I won’t lie to you, I would love to have him at any stop,” Obama said with a grin.Monday.”Obviously, if he wants to show up he’s got an open invitation.”Powell expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain’s campaign, his choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a running mate and their decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama’s ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers, saying “it goes too far.”McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell’s endorsement, saying it wasn’t a surprise, that the two share mutual respect and are longtime friends.The Republican from Arizona pointed out on Sunday that he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James A.Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.At a boisterous rally on Sunday, Obama said McCain was “out of ideas and almost out of time.”He and his aides appear so confident of his prospects that apart from a brief stop in Madison, Wisconsin, next Thursday, Obama currently has no plans during the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.Nampa-AP