The Obama
campaign was awash with good news over the weekend,
announcing a staggering $150 million haul in
fundraising for the month of September and
receiving the coveted endorsement of former Secretary
of State and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin
Powell.
Powell, who
announced his support for Sen. Barack Obama on the Meet
the Press Sunday, said the country was facing
the most difficult times he had ever seen in his 30-plus
years of public service. While Powell said both Sen.
John McCain and Sen. Obama were prepared to be
president in his judgment, he added that Sen. Obama is
a "transformational figure" who has the
"rhetorical abilities" and the
"substance" to meet the challenges of the day.
"He is a
new generation coming into the world -- onto the world
stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason,
I'll be voting for Senator Barack
Obama," he said. Powell also indicated that part of
his decision stemmed from the divisive tone of
McCain's campaign, his capricious approach to
dealing with the economy, and his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin
as his running mate.
"Now that
we have had a chance to watch her for some seven
weeks," Powell said, "I don't
believe she's ready to be president of the United
States, which is the job of the vice
president."
Gen. Powell, who
had strongly supported the military's
"don't ask, don't tell"
policy and helped craft the plan before he stepped down
as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has indicated
a willingness to review the policy in recent years.
Last year, he told Vanity Fair that the military ban
"is still a discriminatory policy; it is
prejudicial," adding, "It's now 14 years later, the
country has changed, and the day may well come when it
will not be a problem any longer."
For her part,
Gov. Palin took time this weekend to revisit the merits of
another anti-gay federal law that, unlike DADT, failed to
make it's way into the books: the Federal
Marriage Amendment. Palin told David Brody of the
Christian Broadcasting Network that she supports passing a
federal law that would constitutionally define
marriage as a union between a man and a woman and deny
same-sex couples the right to marry.
"In my own
state, I have voted along with the vast majority of Alaskans
who had the opportunity to vote to amend our Constitution
defining marriage as between one man and one
woman," Palin told CBN. "I wish on a
federal level that that's where we would go because I don't
support gay marriage."
Palin's
views on the issue break with those of Sen. John McCain, who
has twice voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment
and who believes defining marriage should be left up
to individual states.
Sen.
Obama's announcement of his $150 million month
brought his fund-raising totals for the campaign to
more than $600 million. Sen. McCain opted to receive
public financing, which allotted him $84 million to
use from the beginning of September through the end of the
race November 4. Sen. Obama's financial
advantage has allowed him to flood the airwaves with
ads at a rate of about three-to-one to Sen. McCain and
enabled him to put staffers into a number of very
traditionally red states such as Virginia and North
Carolina.
Another financial
development last week: The Atlantic reported
that the Democratic National Committee is considering
pouring about $20 million into state legislative races
nationwide in an attempt to flip control of key
legislatures. In the cross hairs, sources said, is New
York, where Democrats are two seats away from winning
a majority in the state senate. Many LGBT activists
believe that a Democratic senate majority would usher in the
chance to pass a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.
The New York State Assembly passed gay marriage
legislation last year and Gov. David Paterson told The
Advocate he would "absolutely" sign the
bill into law if it reached his desk.
