Colin Powell on Meet The Press

Wow. On Meet The Press this morning Powell called for Guantanamo to be closed. NOW. And he said we should "get rid of the military commission system." Think Progress has video and transcript:

Guantanamo has become a major, a major problem for America’s perception — as it’s seen, the way the world perceives America. And if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo — not tomorrow, this afternoon. I’d close it. And I’d not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system. The concern was, well, then they’ll have access to lawyers, then they’ll have access to writs of habeas corpus. So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about? And by the way, America, unfortunately, has too many people in jail, all of whom had lawyers and access to writs of habeas corpus. And so we can handle bad people in our system. And so I would get rid of Guantanamo and I’d get rid of the military commissions system, and use established procedures in federal law or in the manual for courts martial. I would do that because it’s more equatable and it’s more understandable in constitutional terms. But I’d also do it because every morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere, is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds. So essentially we have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission.

His reasoning seems to be that it feeds into a negative perception about America rather than that it's inherently wrong, but it's nice to see him advocate so strongly for the progressive (i.e. mainstream) position. He's still a very trusted voice, his role in taking us to war notwithstanding.

At the end of the interview, when asked about his presidential choice, Powell was coy.

RUSSERT: Any endorsements?

POWELL: Oh not yet, it's too early.

RUSSERT: But you'll support the Republican?

POWELL: It's too early.

RUSSERT: Would you support an independent?

POWELL: I'm going to support the best person I can find who will lead this country for 8 years beginning in Jan. 2009.

RUSSERT: Of any party?

POWELL: The best person...

If that's not a sign that the moderates are going to break for Democrats in 08, I don't know what is.