Colin Powell, retired General, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,  impresses me.  Even after his failure to live up to his values by stumping the Iraq war to the U.N. for Pres. Bush he impresses me. His endorsement of Barack Obama this past weekend may be the most powerful 7 minutes of television I’ve watched in the past 10 years and his indictment of the current Republican party, the Bush administration, and Sen. John McCain’s campaign and Vice-Presidential choices is exactly on target.

I think Barack Obama should make Colin Powell his Secretary of Defense.  Who better to place over the abused and war-worn military of the United States.  Who better to shepherd it back into the fine tradition of the American military and restore its honor and morale.  Powell would defend his men and women against ill-use and champion their cause with President Obama and the Congress.  And what a blow it would lay to the charges that Obama doesn’t know how to cross the aisle for bi-partisan action.

Choosing Colin Powell for his Secretary of Defense would be a courageous, right, action by President Obama.

Edit: I mistakenly wrote “Secretary of State” in the last sentence.  That has been corrected.