Powell: No regrets in backing Obama

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that he has no regrets in backing Barack Obama for president and decried the partisanship that he said has hampered Obama in his first year.

A veteran of the Bush administration, Powell was asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” about whether he had regrets in throwing his support behind Obama. “None whatsoever,” Powell said.

{mosads}”I think it was the right choice when the nation voted for him,” the retired four-star general added. “He has done some things that have helped the nation a great deal,” including stabillize the country’s financial situation, “even though I’m not happy with all they have done.”

Powell said that Obama’s mistake may be pushing forward on healthcare while his “main attack” in the eyes of the American people should be fixing the economy and getting people back to work. “I’m afraid he put too much on the plate,” Powell said. 

Powell, a Republican, also said Obama “underestimated the opposition.”

“It’s nice to say let’s be bipartisan but we’re a partisan nation,” Powell said, adding that Obama “didn’t expect such a strong attack of resistance from the Republican Party.”

The former secretary of state blamed extreme positions on the left and right, the Tea Party conservative movement, and the proliferation of bloggers for “heightening tension” and throwing the political system into “some disarray.”

“You’ve got to find areas of compromise to kepe the country moving forward,” Powell said, stressing that “attempts to bring [Obama] down” were just adding to the problem. “The Senate and House have not demonstrated the kind of leadership the American people are looking for on either side of the aisle.”

Powell derided charges that Obama was moving the country toward socialism. “Have we so lost our fatih in this country that we think one person, one man can change our entire system?” he said.

Powell added that in Obama’s next three years, Americans are going to want to see some real progress. He lauded the president’s strategy in Afghanistan while dismissing charges from some on the right that Obama’s national security policies are endangering the country.

“I don’t know where the claim comes from that we are less safe,” Powell said, adding that the discontinuation of “extreme” interrogation techniques and creation of agencies such as the Transportation Safety Administration and the Director of National Intelligence happened under the Bush administration.

Still, he said he was “surprised” at the lack of coordination between agencies in dealing with Christmas Day bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.