He wrote: "Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race … I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I’ll let you know what I come up with."

Powell, who announced at the beginning of the campaign that he wasn’t announcing his support for either candidate until the end of all three political debates, said yesterday that race was not a factor in his decision.

Some other conservative pundits have echoed Limbaugh’s racial accusations.

Conservative Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist (writing for ABC News, Newsweek, Washington Post) George Will said:"It seems to me if we had the tools to measure we’d find that Barack Obama gets two votes because he’s black for every one he loses because he’s black because so much of this country is so eager … to feel good about itself by doing this, but more than that to put paid to the whole Al Sharpton/Jessee Jackson game of political rhetoric."

The Huffington Post points out other such charges.

Respected Maine-based attorney Dan Billings reportedly said: "If Obama was a white man, Powell would not have made the endorsement."

And political commentator Pat Buchanan said on MSNBC: "Alright, we gotta ask a question … Look, would Colin Powell be endorsing Obama if he were a white liberal Democrat?"

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