Powell praises Obama's victory

Colin Powell, the retired general and former secretary of state whose high-profile endorsement of Barack Obama helped ease voter worries about the Democrat's foreign policy credentials, teared up when talking about Obama's "historic" election.

"President-elect Obama is going to be a president for all of America," Powell said today during a visit in Hong Kong, the Associated Press reported. "He also happens to be black, which makes it a very, very historic occasion."

"The American people are responding with great emotion and with great pride in our system that we have seen this latest step in reconciliation with respect to our race relations," he told reporters. "We have not completely reconciled within my society, with my country. But what Mr. Obama represents is the best of America."

The AP said Powell's eyes moistened as he added, "He has run a campaign that is inclusive ... The fact that he is also black just has turned American on. It's very emotional."

Powell said he believes Obama will work, "perhaps more broadly than the past administration ... with allies, to listening to allies, to hearing what they have to say, and taking their interests into account."