After receiving an early-morning endorsement from Colin Powell, President Obama took time out of his whirlwind 48-hour tour of swing states (and the Tonight Show) to cast his ballot Thursday in his hometown of Chicago, becoming the first ever president to cast an early vote.

Powell, a retired Army General who served as Secretary of State under President George W. Bush and in different roles in two other Republican administrations, reprised his 2008 endorsement of President Obama in an interview on "CBS This Morning":

"Summarizing the past four years under Obama, Powell said 'Generally we've come out of the dive and we're starting to gain altitude.' He acknowledged that problems remain, saying 'The unemployment rate is too high, people are still hurting in housing but I see that we're starting to rise up.'"

Powell expressed concern in Republican candidate Mitt Romney's having taken various and often contradictory positions on foreign policy, leading to confusion about his true agenda. "Sometimes I don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have," Powell said.

The former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that he had not informed either candidate about his endorsement before his Thursday interview. While it won't have the same impact on the president's re-election bid as it did in 2008, receiving the endorsement of one of the most respected Republicans in Washington should provide a boost and some validation for Obama's foreign policy record.

President Obama spent Wednesday night flying from Las Vegas to Florida, where he kicked off the day with a rally in Tampa. There the president played up Tuesday's controversial comments by Republican senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana, who Romney had recently endorsed, as Bloomberg reports:

"'As we saw again this week, I don’t think any politician in Washington, most of whom are male, should be making health- care decisions for women,' Obama told 8,500 people at Ybor Centennial Park. 'Women can make those decisions themselves.'"

The president then headed to a rally in Virginia, followed by a stopover in Chicago to vote, before wrapping up the day in the state likely to decide the election, Ohio, according to Politico.

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage of President Obama here.

Reach Executive Producer Matt Pressberg here.