He left town with more class than the present administration that is still there.  If Powell leaves town, that's a real piece of anecdotal evidence that clowns are running the show.

One of Bush's few advisers who had authentic power, and whose subsequent emasculation was correspondingly drastic. I have to give him some credit for opposing the neocons in private discussions, but his willingness to be their public lackey was truly disgusting and cowardly. Had he kept public with the opinions he expressed in private, history might have turned out differently. He appears to be haunted by his choices. Every time he did an interview in 2005 and 2006, he seemed guardedly guilty, as though he'd been having some regrets that the Japanese custom of seppuku wasn't acceptable to the American public. Out with it, Powell! Over the last year or so it seems that he's gotten a little more confident, or perhaps he's just entertaining hopes for public office post-Bush. Face it: it's way too late for him to influence anyone other than the historians ...