Reading the preview ABC offers of Colin Powell’s interview with Barbara Walters tonight almost makes me forgive him for his sins in the second Bush administration.

“When you look at those who weren’t able to get out, it should have been a blinding flash of the obvious to everybody that when you order a mandatory evacuation, you can’t expect everybody to evacuate on their own. These are people who don’t have credit cards; only one in 10 families at that economic level in New Orleans have a car. So it wasn’t a racial thing — but poverty disproportionately affects African-Americans in this country. And it happened because they were poor,” he said.

I said it almost makes me forgive him because he’s still toeing the Bush line on Iraq so closely.

Powell told Walters he is unfazed by criticism that he put loyalty to the president over leadership. “Loyalty is a trait that I value, and yes, I am loyal. And there are some who say, ‘Well, you shouldn’t have supported it. You should have resigned.’ But I’m glad that Saddam Hussein is gone. I’m glad that that regime is gone,” he said.

When Walters pressed Powell about that support, given the “mess” that the invasion has yielded, Powell said, “Who knew what the whole mess was going to be like?”

Here we go again. Who knew? Who could have imagined? Who? The same folks who require blinding flashes of the obvious to figure things out, I guess.

They say Powell still thinks of running for president himself. I’d like to feel better about that, but reading the transcript and all the justifications he provides for what he did leaves me cold. Tune in tonight and see what you think.

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