Flap's Blog

Now, I know the U.S. Senate does not wish to rush ratification of the START Treaty during the lame duck session of the Congress.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says a stalled nuclear treaty with Russia gives the U.S. the tools it needs to verify Russian nuclear activities and should be ratified by the Senate as soon as possible.

Meeting at the White House with President Obama, the retired four-star Army general and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman lent his clout to treaty backers. Powell said Wednesday that senators with doubts about the treaty had raised appropriate concerns, but that Obama had addressed them.

Obama renewed his call for the Senate to act on the treaty during the current post-election congressional session.

There are too many new Senators that will take office in January and some Senators have complained that the treaty has not been given a full debate. Colin Powell’s endorsement is really the icing on the cake – remember all of those WMD’s they found in Iraq?

The U.S. Senate should defer this matter for the next Congress and with a full floor debate.

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From NBC’s Meet the Press Today

If you listen to Colin Powell above and in other clips, he really has little understanding of domestic politics.

MTP >> go, you, of course, endorsed president obama in 2008. are you prepared to endorse him for re-election?

CP >> just as i did in 2008, when 2012 comes along, i will look at the needs of the country, the situation as i see it and i will evaluate both candidates and see which one i think is best able to lead the country. in 2008, in my judgment, it was mr. obama. we had a country that was in recession, heading into depression. we had banks failing. we had a stock market collapsing. we were in difficulty. and i thought that he was best able to deal with that, with the advisers he was surrounding himself with. and we have stabilized our economy. i think that worked out.

MTP >> you described him as a transformational figure. has he lived up to that or do you find yourself disappointed?

CP >> i think he is a transformational figure. some people don’t like what he has done in transformation. it has caused him some difficulty. the fact of the matter is that he did put health care reform– it’s not perfect and it will have to be fixed over time. people are not happy with the health care reform but he did it. millions of our fellow citizens have no insurance, especially children. i think he has done transformational work with respect to education and should get credit for that. but in other aspects, i think he has to focus on now governing. not worrying about the daily campaign problem or reacting to everything that comes across the cable news channel. he needs to sort of get above all that. mr. president, they will kick you like a dog, treat you like a dog but that’s the nature of our system. america is a great country and this is the way we do our politics.

Powell might be a great military general and a diplomat but when he says that President Obama has been a transformational figure while he rammed ObamaCare through the Congress and whose economic policies have led to high unemployment. Well, I think you understand why Powell cannot be taken seriously.

And, with the President’s poll numbers in the basement, Powell wants to hedge his bets to continue the invites to the “A” Washington cocktail parties when the GOP ascends to power in November.

Colin Powell Urges Senate Ratification of Obama START Treaty with Russia

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