Since former Secretarty of State Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama in October, I've noticed that Powell has earned the recent disdain of one "El Rushbo". Immediately follwing the Powell endorsement on Meet the Press, Rush dismissed Powell by claiming "that he's not a real conservative anyway" and stating that the only reason Powell endorsed Obama was because was black, completely contradictory to the reasons Powell stated for supporting Obama. Powell did make note of the historical significance of the country possibly electing the first African-American as president, and as a black man himself he would feel a sense of pride in this historical milestone, but stated those were not his main considerations for his support. Rush dismissed Powell's reasons and lambasted him for his criticisms of tactics employed by the RNC during the campaign.

     On this past weekend General Powell did an interview on CNN were he went more in depth with his criticism of the direction of his party, calling on the GOP to reach out more to the concerns of minorities and young people, and took aim at Rush and other so-called "conservative" radio show host for appealing to "our lower instincts". Rush fired back by stating Powell was insignificant and that he wasn't a real republican. My friends, this is what is wrong with the the GOP. There apparently can't be any criticisms towards the right wing of the party without being called names and discredited. Powell, in my humble opinion made excellent points as to why the party was in such a state of disaray. The sins of Harry Dent and the "southern strategy" have finally come back to haunt us. We are now perceived by many as insensitive and intolerant to the issues of non-white southerners(to put it mildly). Rush in his arrogance can't seem to understand that tone and manner in which he makes his points come across as hateful in the eyes of many minorities. The type of language  used by Rush, and others like  him has appealed to the most negative aspects of politics. As a African-American, and a republican I find the comments made by Rush to be indefensible to many of my black friends who share many of the same conservative values that we do, but because of the manner in which so-called "conservative" radio talk show host and pundits come across, we have alienated an entire segment of the electorate for a generation. I believe that republican values are whats best for this country, but we have voices within this party that have distorted our message and hurt our cause.