A FiveThirtyEight.com reader comments on the Powell news

"Nate,
I have to say that I've had zero respect for Powell ever since the Iraq invasion and his role in it and his equivocating, unsubstantial commentary on that and everything else since then. However, I'm not easily emotional but had tears running down my face today when he spoke of the mother at her son's grave in Arlington. What a shame the Republican party is to demonize and denigrate one's faith. What Powell said today about that would have been enough for me to say he has redeemed himself. He said that and a lot more of course and I'm sure HE is glad that Obama came along to allow him an opportunity to redeem himself in they eyes of many Americans."

REMEMBER THE WARNINGS. IT'S NOT OVER, AND THERE ARE CARDS LEFT TO PLAY.
With McCain refusing to denounce the Robocalls designed to scare voters into believing Senator Obama is a terrorist; and with the "Bradley effect" commentary refusing to die; be prepared for radical attacks that with so little time left in the campaign; will have very little chance for rebuttal. I do believe that the Obama campaign has something big up it's sleeve, still... Obama said a couple of weeks ago; "We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last". I am sure the McCain campaign realizes that they had gone too far; and the ominous tones of the rallies were showing that, clearly. While they've dramatically backed off; the fact that McCain allowed and is now supporting the Robocalls, to the rebuke of Colin Powell this morning. He also spoke eloquently about the Muslim issue specifically.

I want to mention something else, which I will cover more in the coming week. HAVING A DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY IN CONGRESS AND PRESIDENCY is no where near as one sided as the fact that the next President could possibly be replacing two moderate/liberal Supreme Court Justices. The average tenure of a SCOTUS judge has been 16 years in the 1970',s but has grown to 26.1 years. That is a staggering figure. The Supreme Court needs to be balanced, and right now; we have 4 conservatives, 3 liberals, one Bush Sr. appointee (Souter, 1990) that has been fairly moderate-liberal; and one swing voter: Kennedy.

Conservatives will argue against a balance; but that's not something they likely will campaign on; because it can bring the imbalance to the Democrat's attention. The two justices likely to retire soon; Ruth Bader-Ginsberg and John Paul Stevens are 75 and 88, respectively. I know this has been mentioned, but Colin Powell brought it up today with his endorsement, and while "justice is blind", we know Justices, aren't.

UPDATE: HERE IS THE SPEECH OUTSIDE TO THE PRESS; IN SOME WAYS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE ENDORSEMENT ITSELF ON MEET THE PRESS.