Colin Powell lost a lot of respect when he made his presentations to the UN regarding Iraq. Fine. What's missing in that assessment is that he was a general, and he was being a good general and falling on his own sword to protect his boss. It's a subtlety that seems to be lost on many, that regardless of his personal feelings in the matter (and I strongly suspect he had Things to Say on the subject), he did his job like a good general, and retired shortly after.
McCain made a huge tactical and strategic error with respect to Obama and race. Your mainstream US voter is, actually, smart enough to recognize that comments about "otherness" are comments about the Big Scary Black Man and cry foul. Having longtime, respected leaders like General Powell call him on it, and his hasty attempts to backpedal just don't work--especially when it's his own running mate making the accusations (and, in a breathtaking display of hypocrisy, whose own husband was until a year ago openly affiliated with a secessionist group). I'm not sure which is more sad, that they used those tactics in the first place, or that there are still enough wingnuts in this country to fall for that.
Don't get me started about policies towards sex ed in the US. Like the "work = virtue" thing, it's a holdover from 17th century colonial views (puritans, in particular) that just won't fucking die already.
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McCain made a huge tactical and strategic error with respect to Obama and race. Your mainstream US voter is, actually, smart enough to recognize that comments about "otherness" are comments about the Big Scary Black Man and cry foul. Having longtime, respected leaders like General Powell call him on it, and his hasty attempts to backpedal just don't work--especially when it's his own running mate making the accusations (and, in a breathtaking display of hypocrisy, whose own husband was until a year ago openly affiliated with a secessionist group). I'm not sure which is more sad, that they used those tactics in the first place, or that there are still enough wingnuts in this country to fall for that.
Don't get me started about policies towards sex ed in the US. Like the "work = virtue" thing, it's a holdover from 17th century colonial views (puritans, in particular) that just won't fucking die already.