http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0812/07/le.01.html
The Exchange:
BLITZER: You have confidence in this new national security team that Barack Obama is putting together?
RICE: They’re all people I know and they are all people of substance. And the most important thing is that they are all people who are going to have the fundamental interests and values of the United States at the core of what they do.
BLITZER: I know you were watching when we reported that Barack Obama would become the 44th president of the United States. What went through your mind as you saw that dramatic historic moment in the United States?
RICE: Well, I’ll tell you, from — a kid from Birmingham, Alabama — in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, it was quite a moment. It means this country has come an enormous distance.
It means that the United States of America is what it claims to be, which is a place of opportunity for all. I don’t think, by the way, that we’re still color-blind. It’s remarkable that we have an African-American president. We’ve had back-to-back African-American secretaries of state. We have African-American heads of major corporations.
But still, we see race and that’s fine. But increasingly we don’t see race as all-defining, of who one is and what one can be. As long as we pay attention to opportunity — to making educational opportunities available, which is really what got me to where I am and I think President-elect Obama would tell you the same thing.
BLITZER: So if he asks you for some help...
RICE: I think we’ll do — I think America will do all right.
BLITZER: But if he asks you for some help, would you be more than happy to help him?
RICE: Well, he is not going to need my help. He has got plenty of help. But of course, he is someone that I admire. He was on my committee, the Foreign Relations Committee. We have talked a number of times. He is going to do very well for the country.
But eight years is a long time. The American people are wise in wanting change. Two terms is plenty. And I’m going to go back to California and on to other things.
BLITZER: Good luck to you.