Powell backs Obama

Democrat Barack Obama saw his campaign bolstered on two fronts yesterday - a key endorsement from a nationally known Republican and the announcement of a record month for fund-raising - as the presidential campaign headed into its final two weeks.

Obama aides said the backing from retired Gen. Colin Powell, President Bush's first secretary of state and a longtime friend of Republican John McCain's, could not have come at a better time, as Obama campaigned in the military town of Fayetteville in North Carolina, a onetime solidly red state Obama hopes to win.

"I think we need a transformational figure. I think that we need a president who is a generational change, and that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama," Powell said on NBC's Meet the Press.

Powell's announcement came hours after Obama's campaign announced it raised a record-shattering $150 million in September and just one day after he broke another record with a crowd of 100,000 at a rally in St. Louis, Mo.

Obama made clear he intended to wield Powell's endorsement - and that of billionaire investor Warren Buffett - to fend off McCain's current campaign strategy of labeling Obama's economic and tax policies "socialism."

McCain told Jewish leaders in a conference call that he believed those criticisms were resonating with voters, and he repeated them at campaign stops in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio.

"I believe Sen. Obama's comments to Joe the Plumber in his driveway that they need to 'spread the wealth around,' I think, is having an impact on the American people. I guarantee you," McCain said in the conference call.

Obama mockingly told the crowd in Fayetteville, "Warren Buffett endorsed me, Colin Powell endorses me, and John McCain thinks I'm embracing socialism?"

He said he was "beyond honored and deeply humbled" to have Powell's support.

McCain, on Fox News Sunday, played down Powell's decision. "I've always admired" the former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, he said, "but I'm also very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state" - Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig - and of "well over 200 retired Army generals and admirals."

Later, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said the endorsement was simply more evidence that Obama was unqualified for the presidency.

"Only an unproven and inexperienced politician like Barack Obama would have to rely so heavily on another man's resume in making the case for his own candidacy, and it shows that he's just not ready," Bounds said.

But the playing field in the final two weeks looks increasingly tipped in Obama's favor. His record fund-raising haul will make it possible for Obama to spend even more money on television ads. McCain, who accepted federal financing for his campaign, is limited to $84 million in total expenditures for the fall campaign and is being outspent by Obama by large margins in nearly every state.

McCain, during his Fox News Sunday appearance, contended that the vast sums of money Obama is raising risked the post-Watergate campaign-finance reforms.

"History shows us where unlimited amounts of money are in political campaigns, it leads to scandal," he said.

Obama's campaign said Obama intended to spend the overwhelming amount of his time in the final two weeks in states that voted Republican in 2004. Apart from a brief stop scheduled in Madison, Wis., Obama has no plans in the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire, or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.

"I don't want to say he won't go to a blue state, but we're certainly concentrating on expanding the map," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist.

Political analysts said they believed Powell's endorsement could be critical, especially to independents in battleground states.

"For undecided voters who are looking at their concerns about national security and defense, this is a plus," said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, where McCain is campaigning hard.

Powell told Meet the Press viewers that either Obama or McCain "would be a good president." But he said he began to have doubts about McCain in the last two months and found McCain's response to the economic crisis "unsure."

McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate was also disconcerting, Powell said, "and raised some question in my mind as to the judgment that Sen. McCain made."

"Now that we have had a chance to watch her for some seven weeks, I don't believe she's ready to be president of the United States, which is the job of the vice president," Powell said.

Powell also said he was disturbed by the McCain campaign's increasingly negative attacks. He singled out its emphasis on Obama's ties to William Ayers, who founded the radical group the Weather Underground in the 1960s.

"Mr. McCain says that he's a washed-out terrorist," Powell said. "Well, then, why do we keep talking about him?"

Powell also said he was upset by what he described as a Republican effort to conduct a whispering campaign against Obama.

"It is permitted to be said such things as, 'Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.' Well, the correct answer is, 'He is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian,' " Powell said. "But the really right answer is, 'What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?' The answer's 'No.' "

In contrast, Powell said, Obama has "displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at problems" that "would serve us well."

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Tomorrow, John McCain will make his third campaign trip to the Philadelphia suburbs in little more than a week.

He will hold a morning rally in Bucks County at TC Millwork, at 3433 Marshall Lane in Bensalem. Doors open at 8 a.m. Tickets are available from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. today through the Republican victory centers in Northeast Philadelphia, Warminster and Blue Bell.

McCain plans stops later tomorrow in Harrisburg and in the Pittsburgh suburbs.EndText