Colin + Obama (2008) w/ Leah Wright Rigueur
This Day in Esoteric Political History
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s October 24th. This day in 2008, former secretary of state Colin Powell goes on Meet the Press and endorses Barack Obama for president — over his longtime friend, and fellow Republican, John McCain.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Leah Wrigth Rigueur to talk about why Colin rebuked his own party, what Obama represented, and what it says about the crossroads he found himself in that moment.
Leah is a professor at Johns Hopkins and the author of The Loneliness of the Black Republican — she’s also co-host with Kellie of You Get A Podcast!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | This day October 19th, we're a couple days late on this, but October 19th, 2008, with two weeks |
| 0:17.7 | remaining in the historic 2008 presidential race, Colin Powell delivers a surprise announcement. |
| 0:24.0 | He would be endorsing Democratic candidate Barack Obama and not the Republican John McCain, |
| 0:29.4 | his personal friend John McCain. |
| 0:31.9 | So what makes this particularly notable other than Powell and |
| 0:34.8 | McCain being pretty close friends? Well for one McCain had kind of built his whole |
| 0:38.6 | campaign around his deep national security experience and Powell was the former Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint |
| 0:44.7 | Chiefs of Staff. |
| 0:46.0 | And even more notable, Powell was a Republican. |
| 0:48.5 | He had come up through Reagan, a little stint with Clinton, but then of course he served with George W Bush during the Iraq war. |
| 0:55.5 | So let's talk about why Powell is now endorsing Obama the Democrat what it says about Colin Powell, |
| 1:00.4 | Barack Obama, that 2008 election. |
| 1:02.9 | Here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt |
| 1:05.6 | and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wausley. |
| 1:07.4 | Hello there. |
| 1:08.4 | Hello Jody. |
| 1:09.3 | There. |
| 1:10.0 | And our special guest for this episode, |
| 1:11.4 | friend of the show, I would say maybe closest friend of the show. |
| 1:15.0 | I'm an annoying fat. |
... |
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