The real reason today’s Colin Powell endorsement of Joe Biden is so important

| 10:55 am EDT June 7, 2020
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This morning, retired U.S. Army General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Even though Powell is a lifelong Republican, this will be the fourth consecutive election in which he’s endorsed the Democratic nominee, so his Biden endorsement isn’t surprising. Still, it’s a big deal – and for a specific reason.

Today is June 7th. Why is that important? When Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, he did it on October 19th. When Powell endorsed Obama again in 2012, he did it on October 25th. When Powell endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016, he did it on October 25th. Powell has always been politically cautious, and he’s waited until very late in the game – just weeks before the election – to stake himself to candidate. But this time around he’s endorsing Joe Biden just a day and a half after he clinched the 2020 nomination.

Colin Powell apparently feels no need to play it safe this time around – or perhaps he thinks the public can see such an obvious difference between the two candidates, he feels like it is a safe move to endorse Biden this early. With all these other military Generals condemning Trump this past week, some of whom have previously never gotten political, it’s certainly softened up the ground for Powell to go ahead and endorse Trump’s opponent.

In any case, there are some older Republicans who miss the days of Reagan and the first George Bush, and they tend to see Colin Powell as the most honorable remaining figure from that era. When he tells them that the Republican Party has become too extremist and dishonorable and he’s voting for the Democrat instead, it carries some weight with at least some of them. And because he’s making his endorsement so early, there’s time for it to sink in, and for Joe Biden to put the endorsement to good use.