I agree with bobo that race may come into mind when endorsing someone, but what I am trying to argue is that it DOES NOT NECESSARILY INFLUENCE ONE'S ACTUAL BEHAVIOR.  Every time we make an important decision, we take into consideration many, many factors, but our behavior is not necessarily influenced by all of those factors.  So, while Powell surely is happy that his favored candidate is black, I think it could have actually made him MORE reluctant to make an endorsement of Obama, for fear that his endorsement would be belittled by people saying it was merely racially based (just like is happening).

If race is such an important factor, how do you account for things like the Chicago Tribune endorsing Obama, after 161 years of endorsing Republicans?  Chris Buckley?  How do you account for the phenomenal support of Obama by white women?  Are we voting with our vaginas because black men have bigger penises?  Or do we see Obama as being a kinder person more likely to take care of Americans instead of just rich people?  Is it more likely that Colin Powell supports Obama because of his intelligence or his skin color?  Following right-wing logic, if Obama was an idiot like Palin, or a flip-flopper like McCain, Powell would still have endorsed Obama. Instead, he first supported McCain and gave the maximum donation he could to the campaign.  I don't see people accusing Lieberman of supporting McCain because of skin color.  Why not?  Because it is such a ridiculous argument to thinking people, whether or not Lieberman is a total racist clown (I don't think he is--he's just a right-wing conservative now).  If anything, Lieberman is voting his religion, which is probably more of a factor for many people than race or sex.

How can we discount sex as a factor in endorsements?  Like race, it is impossible to eliminate as a a possible factor.  McCain counted on getting female votes by selecting Palin as his running mate.  But since she is an idiot, the ploy doesn't work except among other idiots, which pretty much shatters the idea that females will endorse any female just because she is a woman.  How is race any different?  

If you are an intelligent and educated person, thoughts of supporting someone because of their race or sex seem somewhat ridiculous.  That is why I discount it as a factor for Powell's endorsement. Whatever you may think of Powell, he is not a shallow or superficial person.

Does this make sense?  It seems to me that intelligent people separate their biases from their behavior.  That is how I was raised.  When I lived in a black neighborhood in Oakland, I had some very negative experiences with blacks, but that didn't make me a racist because I could separate socio-economic issues from skin color.  My company has people from all over the world, and I see no evidence of people of one race supporting others because of skin color. But perhaps the scientific community is a bit more colorblind than your average plumber from Ohiowa or Minneconsigan.  I'm sure Colin Powell is as intelligent as the scientists in my company.

I believe that Colin Powell is smart enough to be able to separate any racial bias from a reasoned opinion.  He hardly seems to be a racist to me.  Why shouldn't he be proud that an African-American might be president?  I certainly am, but I am white.  If Obama was some sort of douchebag, he would not have endorsed him; do you agree?  If you agree with that statement, then the Limbaugh/Buchanan hypothesis is incorrect--race did not matter enough to influence his behavior.

In my humble opinion, Powell endorsed Obama because the Republican ticket is too far to the right for him to feel comfortable with it.  People say that the average American is "center-right."  This is why conservatives are rejecting McCain/Palin.  They don't feel that they represent the views of the average conservative.