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In addition to endorsing Barack Obama for president yesterday, Colin Powell told Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press that he believes education is the most pressing under-the-radar challenge the next president will face. Here's the quote:
I think the American people and the gentlemen running for president will have to, early on, focus on education more than we have seen in the campaign so far. America has a terrible education problem in the sense that we have too many young people not finishing school. A third of our kids don't finish high school; 50 percent of minorities don't finish high school. We've got to work on this. My wife and I are leading a campaign for this purpose.
Powell also spoke about the need for the United States to become a leader on alleviating poverty abroad.
It's no great mystery why Powell identified with the Republican Party for most of his professional life; he came up through the culture and customs of the military. But with these core beliefs, the Obama endorsement is really no surprise.
--Dana Goldstein
