2012election – .editor

I don’t agree with everything he says, but this interview is worth the watch. It certainly changed my views about Powell a bit …

On whether he plans to endorse President Obama again this year:

I’m just a private citizen. I’m under no obligation to make an endorsement just because I’m on a book tour. So, as I have always said in every election, I like to watch the candidates, but not only the candidates, I want to see what policies they’re liable to implement, what the platform’s going to be. I want to see what the whole ticket’s going to look like. So I will wike my time as a citizen to decide what I’m going to do and who I’m going to vote for.

On what he hoped Obama would do in office:

I wish he had closed Guantanamo. Once he asked congress if he could close Guantanamo, they jus tstopped it because they had to provide funding. I think he could have done it without going to congress. … Guantanamo has been a problem for us for all these years. …

Frankly, I would have like to see the unemployment rate go down much more. I think it has to go down much more by the electio nor he may be in difficulty … he has to focus on the economy and get the jobless rate down because that’s what the American people expect.

On Romney’s comments a few months ago about Russia being America’s top rival:

I think he needs to think through these issues a little more thoroughly before he makes statements like that. I know Mr. Romney. I’ve known him for many, many years, and I think he’s a very excellent individual. I’m sure he means the best for America.

On whether Romney’s religion will affect the election, given Mormonism’s historical treatment of blacks:

No, I don’t think so. The man stands on his own. he is a man of faith. His faith is somewhere different than the faith of other Americans, but I don’t see why his Mormonism should be in the least bit a problem for him.
…
The fact of the matter is, I know Mitt very well. I know what his views are with respect to African Americans, other minorities, and I think he is a person who believes in diversity and there is no discrimination in his body, in his soul.

On gay marriage:

In my view, right now, it’s a state issue. And different parts of the country have very, very different views. But my own personal view is that, after thinking about it a great deal and watching the progress we have made over the years — I know so many gay and lesbian friends who have committed relationships, who have children and who have been together for 40 and 50 years — and I don’t know why the legal basis of that relationship should not be consummated with a marriage.

It has nothing to do with religion. If a church or some other group or some denomination chooses not to provide a sacrament for that or solemnize it in a religious ceremony, that’s their choice. But to deny that opportunity for a legal relationship with two people under the laws of the state or the laws of the country, I think is no longer appropriate and gay marriage should be accepted.

Now, each state is going to have to work their way through this, and I think if you come back a generation from now, you will find that this has moved greatly and that most states will have adopted it. If you look at the attitudes of the American people, increasingly, the numbers are moving in the direction of acceptance of gay marriage.

The polls and pundits say the Obama-Romney race will be close — another 2004 or 2000, with the presidency won by a few points in a few key states.

I’m not so sure. I think this election will look like a landslide in the Electoral College count. And right now, I think Romney wins.

Why?

It’s almost June, and there’s just not a lot of great economic news for Obama. Pretty soon, it will be too late for any summer or early fall economic growth to change people’s impressions that the current administration fumbled the ball on jobs.

The mood of the country seems pretty bleak. There’s enough hatred for Obama on the right to get lots of people out to the polls, and not a lot of enthusiasm on the left for fighting for a second Obama term.

That’s just my subjective feeling. The friends I’ve talked presidential elections with over the past 15 years will write this off as my usual pessimistic view of the Democrats.

And they might be right.

I’ll update this map whenever I take a notion to. And as with this one, my picks are purely intuitive, based on nothing more than that. It’s how I pick teams for my March Madness bracket (fwiw, I won the pool in 2011 and have come in 2nd or 3rd three or four times).

(Map courtesy 270towin.com)