From TIME:

I am not normally of the view that endorsements mean much in Presidential politics. But Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama today is a real sledgehammer blow to the already staggering McCain campaign. Not just because a Powell endorsement shores up Obama’s shaky foreign policy bona fides, but even more because of the content of Powell’s remarks on Meet the Press. The General showed he still knows how to launch a brutal offense. Powell’s remarks were an across the board indictment of the McCain campaign. He threw a subtly delivered but perfectly targeted series of chops at each of the the major fractures of the shaky McCain campaign; the Palin choice, the dark tone of the campaign, the Helter Skelter antics at the onset of the economic crisis. As a great McCain admirer, I am sad to say it, but the truth is the video of Powell’s endorsement will boil across You Tube and do great damage in these closing days of the campaign.