Obama: Powell will have role in administration

Obama: Powell will have role in administration

By Laurie Kellman - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 20, 2008 15:04:03 EDT

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

“He will have a role as one of my advisers,” Barack Obama said on NBC’s “Today” in an interview aired Monday, 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.

“It isn’t easy for me to disappoint Sen. McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that,” Powell said of his longtime friend, the Arizona senator. “But I firmly believe that at this point in America’s history, we need a president that will not just continue, even with a new face and with the changes and with some maverick aspects, who will not just continue basically the policies that we have been following in recent years.

“I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Sen. John McCain.”

Powell said he was cognizant of the racial aspect of his endorsement, but said that was not the dominant factor in his decision. If it was, he said, he would have made the endorsement months ago.

He said both Obama and McCain are qualified to be commander in chief, but Obama is better suited to handle the nation’s economic problems as well as help improve its standing in the world.

Powell also expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain’s campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and the McCain campaign’s decision to focus in the closing weeks of the contest on Obama’s ties to 1960s radical William Ayers.

He said McCain’s choice of Palin raised questions about judgment.

“I don’t believe she’s ready to be president of the United States,” Powell said.

As secretary of state, Powell helped make the case before the United Nations for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, launched in March 2003. A retired Army general, he also was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the 1991 Persian Gulf War under President George H.W. Bush.

Powell said he didn’t plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before the Nov. 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.”

McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell’s endorsement, saying it wasn’t a surprise, that the two share mutual respect and are longtime friends.

McCain pointed out 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.

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