Her inexperience was not what scared people off.
It was my only concern about her, anything else I either liked or was irrelevant to me. I wasn't concerned about her being a woman, a mother, a gun owner, or some of the other issues her opposition brought up. I knew the left was stoking a religious fear aspect that just was not true. Some fell for it though.
Republican voters do not usually think that the US is a racist country.
Very true, but apparently they didn't like the left suggesting it over and over, and it intimidated some.
Listen to Powell? What has he ever said? Did he make his concerns known? Did he try he make his position known to the GOP in advance. I know he had some issues with the Bush administration, but the the first thing I hear out of his mouth was "I support Obama". Sorry, I don't think jumping ship fixes anything. If he couldn't use his influence to fix his perceived problems, he doesn't warrant a voice now. Had he made some effort and decided due to irreconcilable, he could have walked away and retained my full respect for him.
Of course one must ask what conservative values does this man have to support perhaps the most liberal presidential candidate in history? Lots of black Republicans abandoned their political principals and voted for Obama, for no other apparent reason than race. Perhaps Powell did the same. If that is the case, the GOP is much better off without him as race should never trump your deepest beliefs.
And he would have had my vote in 96 as well.
