Powell would play key role in White House, Obama pledges
Last Updated: Monday, October 20, 2008 | 3:28 PM ET
The Associated Press
Barack Obama says Colin Powell, who has endorsed the Democratic candidate in the U.S. presidential race, would play a key role in the White House if Obama wins next month's election.
"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Obama said on NBC's Today show, a day after Powell, a four-star general and U.S. President George W. Bush's former secretary of state, endorsed him.
"Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is something we'd have to discuss," Obama said.
Being a top presidential adviser, especially on foreign policy, would be familiar ground to Powell on a subject that's relatively new to the freshman Illinois senator.
Obama has struggled to establish his foreign-policy credentials against Republican candidate John McCain, a decorated military veteran, Vietnam prisoner of war and ranking Republican on the Senate armed services committee.
Obama a 'transformational figure': Powell
In the NBC interview, Obama said Powell did not give him a heads-up before he crossed party lines and endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on the network's Meet the Press a day earlier.
During the show, Powell called Obama a "transformational figure" in the nation's history and expressed disappointment in some of McCain's campaign tactics. But, Powell said, he didn't plan to hit the campaign trail with Obama before election day, Nov. 4.
"I won't lie to you. I would love to have him at any stop," Obama said with a grin Monday. "Obviously, if he wants to show up, he's got an open invitation."
Powell's endorsement came just hours after Obama's campaign disclosed that it raised $150 million US in September, obliterating the record of $66 million it had set only one month earlier.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said she had not spoken to Bush about his reaction to Powell's endorsement, but added that Bush and Powell have a good relationship.
"The president greatly respects Gen. Powell, as we all do," Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to an event in Louisiana.
Powell expressed disappointment in the negative tone of McCain's campaign, his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate and their decision to allege in the closing weeks of the contest that Obama had ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers, saying "it goes too far."
McCain dismisses Powell's Obama backing
McCain, meanwhile, seemed dismissive of Powell's endorsement, saying it wasn't a surprise and that the two still share mutual respect and are long-time friends.
The Republican from Arizona pointed out on Sunday that he had support from four other former secretaries of state, all veterans of Republican administrations: Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger and Alexander Haig.
At a boisterous rally Sunday, Obama said McCain was "out of ideas and almost out of time."
The Illinois senator and his aides appear so confident of his prospects that apart from a brief stop in Madison, Wis., on Thursday, the campaign currently has no plans during the next 10 days to return to Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire or any other state that voted for John Kerry in 2004.
Instead, Obama intends to spend two days this week in Florida, where early voting began Monday, and to travel to Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico and possibly Nevada and Indiana. Those states hold 97 electoral votes combined, and Bush won all in 2004.
Obama also may stop in West Virginia, where his campaign recently bought statewide television advertising in a late attempt to put the state's five electoral votes into serious contention.
