From Elisabeth Bumiller's piece about Obama's foreign policy advisers in today's Times:
Another person who has contributed outside advice is former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, whom Mr. Obama has been wooing. Mr. Powell, a Republican, has a friendship of decades with Mr. McCain, but friends say he has felt excluded from Mr. McCain’s foreign policy operation and was impressed when Mr. Obama called on him in June. Mr. Powell also met around the same time with Mr. McCain.
Interesting. I still say Powell doesn't endorse--just a little bolder than his usual m.o. But it's certainly savvy of Obama to put him in play, so to speak. I consider him the Virginia (North Carolina?) of potential presidential supporters. Obama doesn't need him to win, but it would be a big deal if he got him. And it certainly could happen.
--Noam Scheiber