This article articulates why I'd consider voting for Colin Powell if he'd repent and confess his sins. 

It is worth recalling the key passages of the speech Obama gave in Chicago on October 2, 2002, five months before the war:

I don’t oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war … I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.

One Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called “The Audacity of Hope.” And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, he would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life.

It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to his will, and dedicated myself to discovering his truth and carrying out his works.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. "Powell and the Black Elite. General Colin Powell." New Yorker v71, n29 (25 September 1995): 64.

Abstract from the Complete New Yorker

THE POLITICAL SCENE about General Colin Powell and how major African-American leaders view his possible bid for the Presidency. General Colin Powell has served in three administrations, for Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. With the publication of his book, "My American Journey," his popularity has skyrocketed, and politicos across the nation are bandying his name about for a possible Presidential bid in 1996. Powell was raised in the Bronx and served in Vietnam. He became close to Casper Weinberger as a White House Fellow and, in 1979, achieved the rank of general. In 1987, he became National Security Adviser, and in 1989 was catapulted to the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His stellar performance during the Persian Gulf War won him instant fame and recognition across America. The writer spoke with a variety of black leaders about Powell, including: former Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander, politico and Clinton friend Vernon Jordan, Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil-rights activist Julian Bond, political scientist Ronald Walters, entrepreneur (and cousin) Bruce Llewellyn, former Black Caucus leader Rep. Kweisi Mfume, Children's Defense Fund head Marian Wright Edelman, National Urban League president Hugh Price, and liberal commentator Roger Wilkins. He also spoke with Casper Weinberger, a mentor of Powell's. Many of the blacks that the writer spoke with expressed doubts about whether Powell was "black" enough, attributing his popularity to the fact that he is "nonthreatening" to whites. The writer found Rev. Jesse Jackson to be especially critical of Powell, calling him a "phantom candidate." Powell claims to be a conservative with a liberal social conscience. He prefers to be seen as a possible Presidential candidate and not the possible first black President. His wife, Alma, expressed her doubts to the writer about whether America was ready to accept a black President. Powell speculated about running as a Republican.

Keywords: Politicians; Politics; Harvard University; Bible; Washington; Democrats; Republican Party; Federal Communications Commission; Anderson, John; Eisenhower, Dwight D.; Military; Nigeria; Bush, George; Vietnam; Washington, Booker T.; Wallace, George; Reagan, Ronald; Jordan, Vernon; Racism; Bond, Julian; Jackson, Jesse; Safire, William; Jones, Quincy; Blacks; Carlucci, Frank; "The Man"; Spencer, Stuart; Dole, Robert; Helms, Jesse; Edelman, Marian Wright; Weinberger, Casper; Iran-Contra; Powell, Colin; Lehman, John; Wilkins, Roger; Capital Gains Tax; Persian Gulf War; Perot, Ross; Bosnia; West, Cornel; Clinton, Bill (Pres.); Reserve Officer Training Corps; Congressional Black Caucus; Banana Kelly; Dellums, Ron; Alexander, Clifford; Williams, Patricia; Price, Hugh; Schmoke, Kurt; Graves, Earl; "The Generals' War"; Powell Doctrine; Abacha (Gen.); National Rainbow Coalition; Caldwell, Theresa; "The Commanders"; Walters, Ronald; Mfume, Kweisi; Llewellyn, Bruce; "My American Journey"; Kelly Street; Dilman, Douglass; Powell, Alma; Jones, James Earl; Reeves, Kenneth;