Anne Applebaum asks a very good question today in Slate. "I realize, of course, that being good at giving interviews to British newspapers isn't a quality much admired in Washington, D.C. Still, [Colin] Powell's ability to bring foreigners around to the American point of view is something this administration, which is carrying out nothing short of a revolution in foreign policy, needs badly�so why should Powell be thought of as a loser or an outsider?"

Now, I know that Colin Powell isn't every conservative's cup of tea. (As does he, of course: his face almost seems to glow when he's pulling conservative tails, as he recently did while discussing condoms on MTV.) But doctrinaire conservatives need to realize that it's precisely the independent streak that they find so troubling that makes Powell such a credible voice when he gets out front and defends the President, as he did in the post-SOTU debate over the Axis of Evil. Truth be told, Powell's global stature and credibility have made him the Administration's indispensable man in the war on terror.
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