Colin Powell Mum on Whether He'll Back Obama Again
The former secretary of state says he's keeping his "powder dry" for now.
| Posted Tuesday, May 22, 2012, at 4:38 PM
Photo by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images.
Colin Powell appears to be wavering on whether he'll endorse President Obama again this year as he did in 2008, when he ruffled the feathers of his own party by hailing the then first-term senator as a "transformational figure who represented generational change."
Asked on NBC's Today show Tuesday whether he'll back Obama or rival Mitt Romney this time around, George W. Bush's secretary of state sidestepped the question, saying he wasn't ready to make a decision just yet. "I always keep my powder dry, as they say in the military," Powell said.
While Powell cited the upcoming end to the war in Afghanistan and the current state of the domestic auto industry as proof that Obama lived up to some of his expectations, he said that the president had failed to deliver on other issues, most notably closing Guantanamo.
Powell also said that Obama needed to work more on the economy, and said he would be listening “what the other fellow”— i.e. Romney—had to say on the matter.
