Replies

"Condi Rice scares me", I heard the lady at my table say. She had just finished mentioning "Now if Colin Powell would run . . .".

Sitting eating lunch at a food court near L.A. City Hall, I had little choice of table mates. I had been doing my best to tune out the discussion about Michael Jackson the heavy set thirty-something was having with her equally heavy set companion. They were ordinary L.A. hispanics generations removed from Mexico -- speaking english with no discernible accent.

I shoveled the lukewarm chinese food into my mouth with a plastic fork while burying my head into a newspaper some previous diner had discarded on the table. The comment about Powell got my attention, though. So it was I heard the observations about Rice quite clearly.

"She's a very intelligent woman, but she scares me", the lady repeated, "I've actually met her and she just scares me."

So Colin Powell is okay but Condi Rice 'scares' this potential voter. (That she is 'scary' suits me fine --- particularly when she needs to face down some very evil enemies).

I myself would vote for Condi in a heartbeat and sensed my fellow angelena could be won over to vote for Dr. Rice, but had neither the time nor insight to address it. I folded up the paper and abandoned it on the table for someone else to read, and left.

Here is some free research for the Republican party (no charge). Perhaps FReepers can pitch in to help Dr. Rice be more of a known commodity to the average voter.

I think Dr. Rice will make an excellent SOS--and I was delighted when I heard the news that the President had nominated her. Besides much else she should be admired for, I believe she had nothing but contempt for the late-of-this-world but freshly-arrived-in-Hell Mr. Arafat, and that's always a plus as a character recommendation, in my book.

That said, the key to her success once confirmed as Secretary will be to resist the bureaucrats eternally nestled in Foggy Bottom's swampy corridors appeasement tendencies. I swear, had the bureaucrats in the State Department been in charge of America's "response" to Pearl Harbor after December 7th, the most the Japanese Empire would've gotten from the United States after that unprovoked attack would've been a flowery note begging for a "summit" or "conference" to "discuss" the late unpleasant "incident" on Battleship Row...indeed, I'm surprised that some section whine type isn't around to argue that that's exactly what should have happened in retrospect in this thread.

One thing Dr. Rice will have to always keep in mind while on the job in her new post is that we won the Cold War in spite of the shirking cowardice of our shameful State Department, not because of it...that agency actually helped prolong the reign of Soviet tyranny over the decades. They've never cared a whit about outrages committed against American citizens by foreign powers, either. With them, everything is Jaw-Jaw; supine "talk" in the face of mortal enemies. Indeed, the State Department building should be renamed the "Neville Chamberlain Sewer of Codified Appeasement," given their record to date. And don't even get me started on their disgusting "diplomatic" treatment of Israel over the years.

I hope Dr. Rice can shake that institution up; and I wish her well in all future endeavors (especially that one).