In the vast and awesome confines of the National Building Museum, a well-coiffed crowd had gathered to honor Colin Powell. Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced the PEOTUS "with a very full and grateful heart." She had battled hard on Mr. Obama's behalf, but the Obama campaign fell just short in the Show Me State.
PEOTUS took the stage at 7:49 pm. The text of the speech should be on its way. "It's easy to slip into superlatives when you talk about Colin Powell," he said, before slipping into superlatives. Because the dinner was to honor bipartisanship, PEOTUS dwelled on Mr. Powell's service to Democrats and Republicans alike, not mentioning his service to Mr. Obama -- a late and dramatic endorsement.
He spoke of Powell's "quiet, remarkably consistent loyalty to a set of principles: truth, loyalty and detrmination."
"The lesson he's learned from his own rise is not his own greatness but his nation's greatness," he concluded, finishing a 7 minute speech.