So Condi Rice is going to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State.
I have to think this means she’s being groomed for the Republican ticket
in 2008.
Well, I hope so anyway. I know very little about her, but I’ve discovered
that I really want to have a ringside seat on the farcical hijinks
that will certainly ensue if the Republicans run a black woman for President,
or even Veep.
Just so my position is clear, it is quite unlikely I’d vote for
her. As in, not unless the Libertarian candidate is a werewolf or
something. It’s just that the thought of Democratic strategists
having shit fits over the hemhorraging black vote greatly amuses me.
The panic and confusion that would reign on the New York Times
editorial page as their political-correctness bias clashes
(for once) with their anti-Republican bias would be good for many
guffaws. I might actually listen to NPR just to hear them choking.
In general, just watching the machinery of smug left-wing duckspeak
seize up and damage itself on Condi’s blackness would be
delicious.
Watching Republican racist/nativist types hold their gorges down
for the sake of party unity would be entertaining too, but probably
much less so as that type seems rather rare these days. In lieu of
that, I’d just have to content myself with the screams of insenate
rage that would issue from the neo-Nazis at Stormfront. Why, they might be
almost as angry as the “Bush=Hitler” crew over at Democratic
Underground. With any luck we might actually get to watch a few of
the vicious morons on both sites die of thundering apoplexy.
Truly, what’s not to like?
There are, of course, excellent reasons for the Republicans to try
this maneuver. Mainstream blacks are far more socially conservative
than most of the other interest groups in the Democratic coalition. I
personally do not consider this is a good thing, but there is no
denying that it makes them pretty ripe to be the next demographic that
gets chiseled out of the party (following southerners, rust-belt
blue-collar whites, and most recently Catholics).
But having a corner on the black vote is important to the Democrats
for more than just raw poll numbers. On it, now that the whites at
the bottom of the socio-economic scale have gone majority-Republican,
rests their last tenable claim to be the Party of the Oppressed. This
claim has become so important to their image and internal mythology that,
without it, the Democrats might very well collapse.
Who’s going to be their next favorite victim group to hang this
myth from? Homosexuals won’t do; there are too few of them at 4%.
The Jews wouldn’t do either, at 2%, even if the Dems hadn’t gotten
badly tainted by the creeping anti-Semitism of their own left
wing. Hispanics used to look promising, but they’re in a late stage of
assimilation and obviously headed the way of the Italians or Irish —
they won’t remain an ethnic voting bloc for even another decade.
It’s hard to peddle your outfit as tribunes of the disadvantaged
when your main powerbases are the public-employee unions, Hollywood,
and the Upper East Side. The Republicans have gotten pretty good at
nailing the Democratic leadership as the spoiled children of wealth
and privilege even with the blacks in the Democratic column;
without them, it’s just going to get uglier. And Condi Rice would be
the perfect wedge candidate.
Your average Democrat’s reflex seems to be to blame the sinister
machinations of Karl Rove for this state of affairs. The trouble with
this theory is that Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, and Condi Rice do
actually exist. They’re not just fantasies, and they
represent a degree of access and power black people never had under
any Democratic administration.
Cynical tactical positioning? Maybe. Who cares? No matter what
the Republicans mean by it, the cause of equality gains and the
hate-spewing race-baiters on the left and right lose. Condi in
2008!
Maybe Powell/Rice in 2008, that way we can see all of the Democrat’s heads explode at once.
I linked to this article, but apparently MT doesn’t play nicely with the b2 Trackback link. Sorry about that ;-)
Hmm. I assume that you are cheering because you think that the Libertarians will benefit more than the Greens from the collapse of the Democrats? Eh.
The Democrats could counter by running a ticket of Carol Moseley Brown and Barack Obama. I wish they could run Ms. Clinton, but unfortunately she has been smeared rather throroughly by the Republicans at this point.
Of course, I suspect that Americans will have bigger things to worry about in 2008 than the race/gender of their candidates.
OTOH, a quarter voted by “Values” this year, so they just might do exactly that.
Eric, your guess that Rice is being groomed for the 2008 Republican ticket seems to be a thinly-disguised excuse for yet another rant against extremists. Not that you’re wrong about extremists, after all, they’re extreme! But when you said “I know very little about her,” followed by “it is quite unlikely I’d vote for her,” I got the feeling you hadn’t put much thought into the introduction–that it was the meat of the article (extremists: bad) with which you were preoccupied.
That said, why you wouldn’t vote for her?
While enjoyable, I think we will find handicapping the field for the 2008 elections to be a some what meaningless. I doubt anyone picked Kerry for the Democrats. And early polls had Liebermann doing quite well. (I Personally believe he would have won, had the democrats nominated him)
Ah yes, that liberal mainstream media again.
It’s interesting that Rice is someone who blatantly dissembled and avoided being questioned by the 9/11 Commission (and was, for some reason, only allowed to be questioned for 10 minutes, a departure from normal procedure).
The questioner (Ben-Veniste) was even taken to task for repeating his question three times! (He even quoted from the Presidential Daily Briefing regarding hijack preparations, but that was, of course, still classified at that point and no-one watching knew this, which allowed Rice to freely dissemble around the issue).
Where are the investigations over this by the mainstream media? Where are the questions? Oh I forgot, there’s that liberal bias again!
Then again, a similar thing happened to Powell regarding his UN speech, which he himself knew contained “iffy” and “murky” material (as noted in Bob Woodward’s Bush At War). As was to later happen with Rice, the “liberal” media didn’t follow up too hard on this.
As an aside, Woodward’s Bush At War was where the media got the line about Bush, the intel chief (can’t remember name, sorry) and the slam dunk; the one where Bush warned against stretching the facts – a pleasing comment that the “liberal” media repeated, despite Bush and Rumsfeld having been doing this very thing in the previous months!
Ah well, must be that famously liberal mainstream media at work again.
I have to admit, when Powell stepped down I hoped that Bush would appoint Cheney Secretary of State and Rice Veep for this very reason. No, I knew it would never happen, but I still dreamt.
name:
/* It’s interesting that Rice is someone who blatantly dissembled and avoided being questioned by the 9/11 Commission (and was, for some reason, only allowed to be questioned for 10 minutes, a departure from normal procedure).
*/
Let me suggest a reason — Congress isn’t above the President any more than the President is above Congress. The President can’t demand actions or explanations from Congress, and Congress can’t demand actions or explanations from the President.
The President’s closest advisors, by tradition, are included in that. Rice is one of the President’s closest advisors, and Congress has no authority to demand an opportunity to interview her. This cuts both ways, Bush can’t demand to speak with Kerry.
/* The questioner (Ben-Veniste) was even taken to task for repeating his question three times!
*/
Yes, because Ben Veniste was trying to get political mileage out of 9/11 instead of determining what went wrong and how it can be avoided in the future. I remember watching the testimony, and while I didn’t expect Ben Veniste to be deferential, I understood that he had already spoken with Rice for over an hour, and already knew enough that the question was nothing more than an attempt to embarrass the President. The memo, BTW, was about as earth-shattering as a memo proclaiming “terrorists try to kill civilians.”
I’ve read the 9/11 Commission Report, and I find it interesting that the memo *did* refer to a potential plot to hijack an airliner in order to get a terrorist released (the “blind sheik” who bombed the trade center). Preparations for such a hijacking would have assumed that the plane would be landed somewhere and negotiations would begin — only to be cut off while Delta Force stormed the plane.
I am a Democrat and a member of “Democrats for Dr. Rice 2008.” We support Dr. Rice for President of the United States because our primary concern is for equality. We believe that a President Rice would help to end the power and dominance of America’s white men-only governance. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is more important to white Democrats than breaking through the barriers of the white-male establishment. Although my black friends maintain a more hostile attitude toward Dr. Rice, if the majority of Democrats support her, she will win and she will help put an end to America’s racist mentality, especially in those very red states. It is great to hear Republicans too offer Dr. Rice their support. Codoleeza Rice could really be the great uniter of Democrats and Republicans, unlike the great divider–Bush. Go Condi!
God Bless,
Democrats for Condi
how can you be so narrow minded about “blackness”. so far the country has been run by “white” people and look where it is headed now. “blackness” has nothing to do with it. you are just showing your stupidity and you can get mad and say what you want to say. but if you look at “white america” as it is now, you will see that this is not utopia.
But does Rice want to be president? I mean does she lust after it, would she bleed for it? Goldwater was an example of a candidate who got drafted to run but didn’t lust for the job the way Kerry did or Nixon. If she’s too obviously just a puppet, she could lose.
She’s the sort of candidate the Libertarians should be looking for though, with an independently wealthy veep candidate.
I like guns, too, and you are obviously talented and knowledgeable in at least one area, but damn, yer clueless.
The Repubs will try to make a dynasty of it, and run Jeb in 2008.
The Dems, if they had a a clue, would run Dean.
But they don’t, and they won’t.
Hello, Germany, 1934
You left out one other scenario, that being where the the President, his evangelical supporters and henchmen, (emboldened by their recent electoral successes) make so many errors that the tide swings back to the Dems. The President’s current refusal to discuss what seems to be a looming Dollar crisis is a case in point. Even a decisive victory in Iraq is worthless to us if our currency fails. How callous we are to think that we have the right to decide what goes on in the Middle East, and how ironic that the Arabs ultimately hold the power to squash us simply by deciding to demand payment of oil in Euros instead of Dollars. Bush’s refuses to even address the Dollar crisis, yet had plenty of time to fill his presidential acceptance speech with all sorts of biblical references and prophecies. This shows that his mindset has been influenced more by Branson and Nashville rather than Western Europe. I suspect that current efforts to restrict abortion, sex ed, medical marijuana and birth control will show Middle Americans (who voted for Bush) what his real agenda is. The only problem is that we will most likely be a backward, 3rd world country after 4 years of his administration. We won’t be able to regain what has been lost. Remember, the EU has incorporated much of Easern Europe during the Bush Administration. We’re fighting windmills.
Condoleeza Rice doesn’t stand a chance if she runs against that other woman who some folks predict might take a shot at the presidency.
Correction, Jack. Condoleezza Rice will kick that other woman’s last ass all over the country in 2008. Bet on it.
Far as I’m concerned, Condi Rice is the only hope America has. If she’s not our next president, we’re all in trouble.
Go Condi!!!!!!!!! Please, please, please, please, please RUN!
one word to describe all of you———- fearful
I would like to know if anyone has asked for a poll to determine how many people would vote for Condoleeza Rice for President?
In 2008 if the presidential nominees are H. Clinton vs COndi Rice Then I would definetly vote democrat as I always did. I do not have a preference when it come to skin color. Altough I would vote for Hillary I am positive Rice will win. I say this because Rice is a better liar than Hillary. I go for the notion that John Edwards should run for president. I did not admire Kerry as much as Edwards. Oh yeah! whatever happened to Gore. I felt so dissapointed in the election process in 2000. We all know that even thou it was the closest race in hystory Gore was the clear winner. But let us not forget that in this day and age it is unbeliavable that a red neck can steal the election as it occured in 2000.
But to go ahead in 2008. I think right now it is too early to call a winner.
If only the American people would know the truth “W” would have so lost the elections.
I do not believe rice has a high IQ because all the mixed blacks score 85 on IQ tests when compared to the whites or Asians. She only uses 4th grade vocabulary words when she speaks. Since the blacks and mixed blacks like rice and powell try to talk white, they are not intelligent at all. If you gave rice an IQ test on the spot I am sure she would not score above 85 or 90 on the IQ test.
But you can not overlook the fact that she is a bit cute.
Eric’s post and many of the above comments are absolutely right. Race matters.
It is a sad commentary on our culture, I wish we were over such things.
Gotta be patient, I guess. One step at a time.
When Condoleeza Rice becomes president, Shit will hit the fan. Big Time. Pray for her folks, Pray for her like no other.
Even as a Black person, I do NOT think Condoleeza Rice is good to lead this nation. I would vote for Hilary before I vote for this TOKEN BLAKC PERSON. First, DO YOUR JOB RIGHT and THEN, run for President. Her track record in the world front is not attractive. Furthermore, I am not into 4 more years of Republicans messing up my country. Enough of these ARISTOCRATIC CAPITALISTS.
Ron study United States history. The freedom garanteed in this country made capitalists out of poor people. Capitalists made this country great. I don’t want big government loving morons like H Clintan messing up our country any more. Even if Condoleeza Rice was a “token black person” as you say, her being elected President will be a wonderful sign that a majority of Americans have overcome racism. As a Black person you should understand the significants of a minority President.
Before I comment on Condi, I’d just like to say that it’s amazing to me how you can tell so much about someone by how they write — who is clueless, who is misguided, who is right-on, and who is just a sloppy typist. That aside, what impresses me so much about Miss Rice is that she never let anything get in the way of her education and her drive to succeed. She IS good at her job, and does it better than anyone I can remember. She is a fantastic leader abroad — case and point, her recent work in Gaza — and domestically understands the delicate responsibility balance among the government, private enterprise, non-profit organizations, and individuals. These qualities and more not only make her a good Sec. of State, but would make her not getting elected President in ’08 criminal. If she doesn’t run: WRITE HER IN ON YOUR BALLOT!
I am particulary bothered by yvon’s comment. I actually find it sadly humorous that you criticized Rice’s IQ when you yourself can’t even use correct grammar or punctuation in your comment. Yvon, what does it mean that Rice and Powell try to “talk white”? Your ignorance is ridiculous, and quite frankly, I am embarrassed for you.
If the opinions of some of the people on this page reflect the feelings of our country, then I’m very disappointed, because we obviously haven’t come nearly as far as we think we have. Vote for the better candidate. Don’t vote for someone just BECAUSE he’s black, or just BECAUSE she’s white, or just BECAUSE she’s a woman, or BECAUSE he’s a man. As simple as it sounds, maybe some of you should consider picking up a newspaper or turning on CNN and really listening to each candidate’s stance before you blindly choose one based on skin pigments.
this lady needs to get the hell out of israel right now. why are we dicking around with other ppls wars, we have our own problems to deal with. i am a republican , always have voted that way anyways, but at first glance i dont think rice would make a good president, ever.
i can just see it, through someone elses eyes, in israel or lebanon how they see america. they see rice, they see careful wording, they see someone whos not 100% real. sure if i sat down with her and he talked, we would get along just fine and i would probably agree with on a good portion of things. however i still wouldnt like her