Now that Colin Powell has shot down Bill Kristol's report that Powell would be endorsing Obama at the Democratic convention ("I do not have time to waste on Bill Kristol's musings"), you have to wonder: did Kristol have (gasp) ulterior motives for airing this misinformation? Steve Clemons has an interesting theory. It was a play against Powell's--and McCain's--good friend, Richard Armitage:
My hunch is that Bill Kristol and friends don't want interest-calculating negotiators and balanced, sensible, pragmatic realists around McCain. They are perhaps using the Russia conflict to purge their foreign policy team of those who are not neocon or neocon-friendly -- and by trying to "export Colin Powell to Obama," Kristol is really going after his close friend and ally Richard Armitage while at the same time attacking General Powell's utility to Obama.
Armitage has been touted as a potential SecDef in a McCain administration. Given the growing gulf between McCain and Armitage's foreign policy views these days, I have a hard time believing that would happen. But I could see why Kristol and his allies wouldn't want to leave anything to chance.
--Jason Zengerle