Powell gets down at England’s Africa Rising Festival (Photo by Joel Ryan/AP)

FOX News was right — for once — that former Secretary of State Colin Powell intended to endorse Sen. Barack Obama. But they were wrong — as usual — about the reasons.

“I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage, and for that reason I’ll be voting for Sen. Barack Obama,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Powell said he was concerned about what he characterized as a recent negative turn of Republican candidate Sen. John McCain’s campaign, such as the campaign’s attempts to tie Obama to former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

“I think that’s inappropriate. I understand what politics is about — I know how you can go after one another, and that’s good. But I think this goes too far, and I think it has made the McCain campaign look a little narrow. It’s not what the American people are looking for,” he said.

Amen. But FOX prophesied a Powell endorsement based solely on the race of the two men, which says more about what FOX sees when it looks at Powell and Obama than it does about Powell’s decision-making process.

Fox News sees ominous signs in the general’s impromptu boogie. It posits that because Powell not only “showed off hip hop moves,” but audibly referred to himself as “African American” while on stage in London, all the signs are present for him to soon endorse Barack Obama for president.

As is his wont, Powell expressed some remorse at his announcement.

“It isn’t easy for me to disappoint Sen. McCain in the way that I have this morning, and I regret that,” Powell said.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, McCain said he respects and admires Powell, and the announcement “doesn’t come as a surprise.”