Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has no faith in the Tea Party’s ability to produce a president. This he noted today in a discussion with Christiane Amanpour on This Week, where he lamented the “very tense” tone currently in Washington and attributed some of that to the obstinacy of the Tea Party.

“The tone is not good right now and the political system here in Washington… has become very, very tense,” Powell told Amanpour, arguing that this was not exclusive a Congressional problem, but a media problem. “The media loves this game where everyone is on the extreme– it makes for great TV.” The extremes, however, would not produce results, he argued. The media, he concluded, needed to “take some head out of political life in terms of the coverage, so that these folks can get to work.”