"John W." wrote:

> > It is too bad Powell did not run for president before Gov. George Bush
> > ever appeared, back when a poll showed he would have been the leading
> > Republican candidate, and that his ethnicity did not pose a barrier. His
> > showing as Secretary of State could now hurt his chances.
>
> There are a lot of factors that come into play. For starters, history
> could be very kind to him, regardless of the outcome; most people
> blame the president for what's going on in Iraq, not Powell, and there
> have been reports that Powell has not always seen eye-to-eye with the
> President. Plus the war in Iraq is far from over; we're fairly
> impatient as a society (most modern societies are) so we want it to be
> over, but it'll take some time. Assuming no great loss of US life
> he'll probably be okay in four years time to run for president. The
> only catch will be that I suspect the Republicans want the other Bush
> to run for president next. Nothing to support that; just a hunch.

Oh, you think so, too? Maybe the Bush family would like one for the record books. The president is
just more proof a relatively unknown state governor can be elected after some serious promotion.
Having his brother elected should not be a serious problem.

> If Bush wanted to ensure victory he'd name Powell VP (or even Condy
> Rice) and show Cheney the door.