>> obama.
>> what reason would that be?
>> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states , i applaud colin for standing with him.
>> yes, that was former new hampshire governor john sununu , co-chair of the romney campaign, patting the head of general colin powell for endorsing his fellow mocha-hued countryman. or wait, are they countrymen?
>> he has no idea how the american system functions and we shouldn't be surprised about that because he spent his early years in hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in indonesia -- and another set of years in indonesia and, frankly, when he came to the u.s., he worked as a community organizer , which is a socialized structure.
>> right. well, despite the president being a kenyan indonesian pot smoking communist, a republican general has to endorse him because they're the same color. they're brothers from another mother. it couldn't possibly be that a former secretary of state actually put some thought into his endorsement, could it?
>> not only am i not comfortable with what governor romney is proposing for his economic plan, i have concerns about his views on foreign policy . sometimes i don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have and he gets advice from his campaign staff that he then has to adjust or modify as he goes along.
>> are you sure that general powell is saying it's because the president is black ? i'm just not hearing that.
>> there are other issues as well, not just the economy and foreign policy . i'm more comfortable with president obama and his administration when it comes to issues like what are we going to do about climate? what are we going to do about immigration? what are we going to do about education? lots of things like that.
>> right. the economy, foreign policy , climate change , immigration, education. i guess that must be code for black , black , black , brother get back, my homes is black . good thing we've got a scholar like sununu to translate the general's remarks. let's get right to our panel. in washington, michelle cottle of "newsweek" and the daily beast . msnbc political analyst karen finy, and in philadelphia professor james peterson of lehigh university . karen , if i can start with you, mr. sununu has distinguished himself as a co-chair of the romney campaign by being a sulfurous mass of sweat, bitterness, and halitosis, but isn't he using race here simply to get us away from the stark truth, the truth, that general powell believes mitt romney doesn't have a single policy that's worthy of support?
>> absolutely, and we've actually seen this before. remember earlier in the campaign they tried to marginalize bill clinton when they recognize what an impact he was having. let's be very clear, john sununu left the federal government in disgrace. colin powell is one of our most decorated american heroes. he is a statesman in this country. he is well-respected not only in the private and public sector , he's respected and beloved by people who are white, black , pink, brown, male, female, if you're in the service, not --
>> he's respected around the world. he's respected around the world.
>> oh, you know, martin, i'm just trying to stick to our little old country here.
>> okay.
>> but point being, when general colin powell says i'm not so sure about this guy's foreign policy , that's somebody you pay attention to. so, of course, they're trying to distract from that. they don't want us to pay attention to the fact that someone who is very serious, very thoughtful, and in a very significant position having served as secretary of state, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff , i mean, you name it, someone like that to say i'm concerned about where he would go with the economy. i find his foreign policy a little bit too all over the place. i don't think he's really thought it through. that's something that's going to make those voters who are not yet decided stop and take pause, and when they hear that, what the romney campaign wants you to think is, oh, no, no, no, it's just because he's black . those black folks, they stick together.
>> professor peterson, if mr. sununu is correct, then why didn't african-americans run to support herman cain instead of actually telling him to go back to being commander in chief of pizza?
>> well, listen, martin, despite whatever people may think or not think, black folk are not monolithic. we do not vote monolithically. we vote the issues and the candidates in terms of their character and their stability and their ability to work on behalf of the issues that we think are important. karen is also right, you're right here, this is the politics of distraction. there's a few other things they want to distract your attention from. number one, general powell represents moderate democrats who are more centrist. he moves more toward the independent vote. it's a really important endorsement. it's also important for the black community because black folk respect colin powell even though we've had our issue was him in terms of his relationship with the bush administration . we have a tremendous amount of respect for his service and the ways in which he's honored our country with that service. it speaks volumes to the base, independents, and to moderate republicans.
>> michelle , sununu issued a statement much so-called clarification. quote, colin powell is a friend and i suspect the endorsement decision he made, and i do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies. but that is not what he said in the interview, is it, michelle ?
>> no, it's not. this is a great just full-on reversal but at this point i'm not sure why we would be surprised. you're talking about john sununu being the voice of the romney campaign, and i think he's clearly been one of the craziest voices in support of the romney campaign.
>> michelle , he's co-chair of the romney campaign.
>> i know, but he is also consistently out there making outrageous statements. that's what he does. he is their kind of rabid attack dog .
>> that's exactly the point. the point is that time and again he has said things that are disgraceful. that they should be ashamed of, and instead they keep putting him out there because they know they can count on him to do this kind of thing. of course he's the one they want to go out and denigrate. again, i'm going to keep saying this, general colin powell is an american statesman. he is a hero around the world. he's someone who has worked with both the public and private sect secto sectors. to try to take down someone like that and delegitimize the endorsement of someone like, that that's shameful. i think the romney campaign new exactly what they were doing when they sent him out there to do it.
>> professor, the president was asked to respond on the michael smerconish radio show . listen to what he said.
>> any suggestion that general powell would make such a profound statement in such an important election based on anything other than what he thought was going to be best for america i think doesn't make much sense.
>> he's right, isn't he, professor?
>> absolutely right. it doesn't make any sense. we shouldn't ignore the fact there's been a lot of black noise this week coming from people on the right around issues of race. if you look at sarah palin , ann coulter , sununu was in here, donald trump with his show me your papers crap all over again. what's happening here is there's a loosely organized strategy to use the politics of distraction around race but also to sort of gin up this idea that this president is a black president . sadly, there will be a few folk out here who are voting who will still vote along some of those racist racial lines, and they're speaking to those folk when they're doing these different antics.
>> professor peterson, here is the problem, 60% of white voters are going with romney , and 82% of norn whites are going with the president. this suggests that however repugnant sununu is, it is having an effect. this is dividing the electorate. this is what they're doing.
>> well, the electorate has already been somewhat divided, martin, and it's sad we're still in this place in america , in american politics . if you look at white male demographics, you can see some folks voting against their self-interest economically, you understand where we are. these kind of comments reentrench us in these sort of rati racialized discourse. it's not a pretty picture but you have to understand people of color and poor folk and working class folk are voting their interest. obama and the democratic party represents not all of their interests but the best interests they have at the presidential level.
>> that's true, isn't it, michelle ?
>> i think that there's been a big split in who the campaigns have been targeting. from the beginning romney 's people have tended to be older, white voters, a lot heavily on the male side. married women. but they have to worry about kind of getting their people to the polls, the democrats do. the assumption is that the republicans will always turn out. the democrats have a much broader base that people see as their voters, so --
>> like the entire country which is, you know, like actually the formation of the america as it is today as opposed to 1943 .
>> that's right.
>> and that's exactly the problem i think -- we've talked about this, martin, several times over the last couple years. that's the problem --
>> shrinking republican base.
>> exactly. they're catering to a shrinking base and the republican party after this election is going to have to ask itself if they're willing to pull the covers out from over their eyes and recognize we are a diverse country and you cannot be a national political party if you're going to write off not just 47%, but african-americans and latinos and women. i just want to make one final point though. it's so important.
>> please.
>> other thing that's so devastating i think about general powell 's endorsement of president obama , this is somebody who knows something about what's going on in the middle east and the iraq war after the bush administration let him go out there and lie to the american people .
>> just a bit.
>> so point being, when he says i have taken a look at what obama is doing, which he said in his statement, i have taken a look at what romney is proposing, and i don't think that's the right way to go, this is -- he has been there. he has been a part of this, the beginnings of this war frankly going back to gulf war one. this is somebody who has deep knowledge about a war that has basically been a part of tanking our economy that we're finally digging ourselves out of.
>> thank you so much karen finney, michelle cottle, and professor james peterson who rushed to the studio. thank you, sir.
>> thanks, mare tin.
>> what reason would that be?
>> well, i think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the united states , i applaud colin for standing with him.
>> yes, that was former new hampshire governor john sununu , co-chair of the romney campaign, patting the head of general colin powell for endorsing his fellow mocha-hued countryman. or wait, are they countrymen?
>> he has no idea how the american system functions and we shouldn't be surprised about that because he spent his early years in hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in indonesia -- and another set of years in indonesia and, frankly, when he came to the u.s., he worked as a community organizer , which is a socialized structure.
>> right. well, despite the president being a kenyan indonesian pot smoking communist, a republican general has to endorse him because they're the same color. they're brothers from another mother. it couldn't possibly be that a former secretary of state actually put some thought into his endorsement, could it?
>> not only am i not comfortable with what governor romney is proposing for his economic plan, i have concerns about his views on foreign policy . sometimes i don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have and he gets advice from his campaign staff that he then has to adjust or modify as he goes along.
>> are you sure that general powell is saying it's because the president is black ? i'm just not hearing that.
>> there are other issues as well, not just the economy and foreign policy . i'm more comfortable with president obama and his administration when it comes to issues like what are we going to do about climate? what are we going to do about immigration? what are we going to do about education? lots of things like that.
>> right. the economy, foreign policy , climate change , immigration, education. i guess that must be code for black , black , black , brother get back, my homes is black . good thing we've got a scholar like sununu to translate the general's remarks. let's get right to our panel. in washington, michelle cottle of "newsweek" and the daily beast . msnbc political analyst karen finy, and in philadelphia professor james peterson of lehigh university . karen , if i can start with you, mr. sununu has distinguished himself as a co-chair of the romney campaign by being a sulfurous mass of sweat, bitterness, and halitosis, but isn't he using race here simply to get us away from the stark truth, the truth, that general powell believes mitt romney doesn't have a single policy that's worthy of support?
>> absolutely, and we've actually seen this before. remember earlier in the campaign they tried to marginalize bill clinton when they recognize what an impact he was having. let's be very clear, john sununu left the federal government in disgrace. colin powell is one of our most decorated american heroes. he is a statesman in this country. he is well-respected not only in the private and public sector , he's respected and beloved by people who are white, black , pink, brown, male, female, if you're in the service, not --
>> he's respected around the world. he's respected around the world.
>> oh, you know, martin, i'm just trying to stick to our little old country here.
>> okay.
>> but point being, when general colin powell says i'm not so sure about this guy's foreign policy , that's somebody you pay attention to. so, of course, they're trying to distract from that. they don't want us to pay attention to the fact that someone who is very serious, very thoughtful, and in a very significant position having served as secretary of state, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff , i mean, you name it, someone like that to say i'm concerned about where he would go with the economy. i find his foreign policy a little bit too all over the place. i don't think he's really thought it through. that's something that's going to make those voters who are not yet decided stop and take pause, and when they hear that, what the romney campaign wants you to think is, oh, no, no, no, it's just because he's black . those black folks, they stick together.
>> professor peterson, if mr. sununu is correct, then why didn't african-americans run to support herman cain instead of actually telling him to go back to being commander in chief of pizza?
>> well, listen, martin, despite whatever people may think or not think, black folk are not monolithic. we do not vote monolithically. we vote the issues and the candidates in terms of their character and their stability and their ability to work on behalf of the issues that we think are important. karen is also right, you're right here, this is the politics of distraction. there's a few other things they want to distract your attention from. number one, general powell represents moderate democrats who are more centrist. he moves more toward the independent vote. it's a really important endorsement. it's also important for the black community because black folk respect colin powell even though we've had our issue was him in terms of his relationship with the bush administration . we have a tremendous amount of respect for his service and the ways in which he's honored our country with that service. it speaks volumes to the base, independents, and to moderate republicans.
>> michelle , sununu issued a statement much so-called clarification. quote, colin powell is a friend and i suspect the endorsement decision he made, and i do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies. but that is not what he said in the interview, is it, michelle ?
>> no, it's not. this is a great just full-on reversal but at this point i'm not sure why we would be surprised. you're talking about john sununu being the voice of the romney campaign, and i think he's clearly been one of the craziest voices in support of the romney campaign.
>> michelle , he's co-chair of the romney campaign.
>> i know, but he is also consistently out there making outrageous statements. that's what he does. he is their kind of rabid attack dog .
>> that's exactly the point. the point is that time and again he has said things that are disgraceful. that they should be ashamed of, and instead they keep putting him out there because they know they can count on him to do this kind of thing. of course he's the one they want to go out and denigrate. again, i'm going to keep saying this, general colin powell is an american statesman. he is a hero around the world. he's someone who has worked with both the public and private sect secto sectors. to try to take down someone like that and delegitimize the endorsement of someone like, that that's shameful. i think the romney campaign new exactly what they were doing when they sent him out there to do it.
>> professor, the president was asked to respond on the michael smerconish radio show . listen to what he said.
>> any suggestion that general powell would make such a profound statement in such an important election based on anything other than what he thought was going to be best for america i think doesn't make much sense.
>> he's right, isn't he, professor?
>> absolutely right. it doesn't make any sense. we shouldn't ignore the fact there's been a lot of black noise this week coming from people on the right around issues of race. if you look at sarah palin , ann coulter , sununu was in here, donald trump with his show me your papers crap all over again. what's happening here is there's a loosely organized strategy to use the politics of distraction around race but also to sort of gin up this idea that this president is a black president . sadly, there will be a few folk out here who are voting who will still vote along some of those racist racial lines, and they're speaking to those folk when they're doing these different antics.
>> professor peterson, here is the problem, 60% of white voters are going with romney , and 82% of norn whites are going with the president. this suggests that however repugnant sununu is, it is having an effect. this is dividing the electorate. this is what they're doing.
>> well, the electorate has already been somewhat divided, martin, and it's sad we're still in this place in america , in american politics . if you look at white male demographics, you can see some folks voting against their self-interest economically, you understand where we are. these kind of comments reentrench us in these sort of rati racialized discourse. it's not a pretty picture but you have to understand people of color and poor folk and working class folk are voting their interest. obama and the democratic party represents not all of their interests but the best interests they have at the presidential level.
>> that's true, isn't it, michelle ?
>> i think that there's been a big split in who the campaigns have been targeting. from the beginning romney 's people have tended to be older, white voters, a lot heavily on the male side. married women. but they have to worry about kind of getting their people to the polls, the democrats do. the assumption is that the republicans will always turn out. the democrats have a much broader base that people see as their voters, so --
>> like the entire country which is, you know, like actually the formation of the america as it is today as opposed to 1943 .
>> that's right.
>> and that's exactly the problem i think -- we've talked about this, martin, several times over the last couple years. that's the problem --
>> shrinking republican base.
>> exactly. they're catering to a shrinking base and the republican party after this election is going to have to ask itself if they're willing to pull the covers out from over their eyes and recognize we are a diverse country and you cannot be a national political party if you're going to write off not just 47%, but african-americans and latinos and women. i just want to make one final point though. it's so important.
>> please.
>> other thing that's so devastating i think about general powell 's endorsement of president obama , this is somebody who knows something about what's going on in the middle east and the iraq war after the bush administration let him go out there and lie to the american people .
>> just a bit.
>> so point being, when he says i have taken a look at what obama is doing, which he said in his statement, i have taken a look at what romney is proposing, and i don't think that's the right way to go, this is -- he has been there. he has been a part of this, the beginnings of this war frankly going back to gulf war one. this is somebody who has deep knowledge about a war that has basically been a part of tanking our economy that we're finally digging ourselves out of.
>> thank you so much karen finney, michelle cottle, and professor james peterson who rushed to the studio. thank you, sir.
>> thanks, mare tin.