Powell the Perceiver

In my initial analysis: I forgot to look at one tiny thing...why wouldn't Powell do it still?

Perception. Powell seems, if anything, hyper-conscious of his own image/public perception of him.

As noted earlier, he's still largely thought well of across the land. Most would probably seem him as a patsy, a pawn, in the Dubya-Cheney-Rumsfeld-ian game that caused him to take shoddy evidence to the world.

Even though I think he's a coward for not calling people out when it was called for, most of the public buys that old "good soldier" rhetoric and it makes him look good when history tells it's tale.

And, I'm thinking that Powell may not be willing to take ANY chance he somehow tarnishes his image as the "good, honorable guy" in a Presidential campaign...even one as civil as a McCain-Obama race may seem to be. There will always be that radical right-wing machine who will go after Obama in nasty ways and Powell may wish to steer well clear of that.

Moreover, his brain may not let him live with himself if he was even partly responsible for an Obama loss. In very many ways, Powell is largely a cautious man...this alone may prevent him for taking a leap of any size.