To Stop Hillary, Draft Condi

The Hill ^ | February 9, 2005 | Dick Morris

[Pharmboy]

Couldn't disagree more. She is sincere and human...I love her and think she would be a great candidate.

[Reagan Disciple]

See post #79. Bizzaro World.

[section9]

Ah, finally somebody gets it.

Condi and George are two people who shouldn't have been where they are, by the lights of the chattering classes, but are because of each individaul's iron will, character, their intelligence. Before GW became Governor of Texas he had squat for "experience", save for watching his father's underlings destroy his father's Administration from the inside. Similarly, Condi learned from old man Bush and Bush the Younger the ins and outs of domestic politics while navigating the shoals of diplomacy and war. Similarly, her experience at managing a budget at Stanford, while small, was telling in that she was absolutely ruthless with the budgetary knife.

She pissed off the faculty liberals, especially the Black and Chicano studies crowd, by forcing them to justify tenure decisions and budgetary proposals. They didn't like her, which is all to the good, as so many of them had an inner Ward Churchill just waiting to bust out.

Karl Rove just got a promotion to Vice-chief of staff. Do you think for a moment that he wants to place his party-building project at the mercy of eight years of a Hillary Presidency? I don't. And I think that Rove is thinking what I'm thinking-that a Rice candidacy drives a stake into the demographic coalition that holds the Democratic party above water. Couldn't anyone see why the Dems and their media pimps went on a press orgy over Barak Obama? They need a viable black man to hold the coalition together! And they've settled on this guy from Illinois, this second-rater out of an Ayn Rand novel, who got to Washington because the Illinois Republican Party imploded. Rove knows this, as does Bush. Bush gained four points among black voters and succeeded like gangbusters among hispanics. Karl Rove's William McKinley is George W. Bush. Now he wants a Teddy Roosevelt, and I think he wants Condi.

That's why GW kept Condi in Washington and didn't let her go back to Stanford. He didn't have to do that. He could have found someone else from the Pubbie establishment to be SOS. But he wants Condi close to him, and I don't believe that it's just because he trusts her. I believe it's because Bush has placed her in the line of succession, which is why Condi is being so coquettishly dismissive of a 2008 run. From the David Frost interview of last Thursday:

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, first of all, congratulations.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you, very much.

QUESTION: And, going on from there, we were looking at a website of your supporters here and, lo and behold, on that it says "Condi for 2008".

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, my goodness.

QUESTION: But that’s a bit premature….

SECRETARY RICE: I think no one should count on such things. [Laughter]

QUESTION: Particularly as you have only just started.

SECRETARY RICE: That’s right, that’s right.

I am convinced beyond measure that Bush wants her as his successor. It's the only play that makes sense. Rudy has too many weaknesses, McCain is too damn old (besides, he gets the DOD job after Rumsfeld moves on...), and there's really no one else. Santorum is a one-trick pony with the gays issue, while I'm not really jazzed by George Allen quite yet. Jeb is simply poison. Great guy. Ready to be President tomorrow. Wrong family. Hillary would love to run against Jeb in '08.

Morris gets a lot of stuff wrong. "Draft Condi" is wrong. She's not about being drafted. This is all about positioning her for a campaign along about 2006-2007. You have to give her clear running room until then. If she becomes a player too soon, Hillary will send her flying monkeys in the MSM after her. In addition, Condi has to build up a coterie of loyalists at State who can protect her. It's still Albright's building; Hillary could start a cascade of damaging leaks anytime she wanted to from inside the building. As a matter of fact, expect that to happen over the next month to take the shine off Condi's media coverage.

But Dick Morris, God Bless his Sellout Soul, is right about One Big Thing: Hillary Clinton is scared to death of Condoleezza Rice. Rice is the one thing that she can't handle: a woman more capable than she and infinitely more ferocious. Hillary surrounds herself with a fawning media and obseqious aides. Her husband is her only ballast. Morris is right about another thing: without Bill, Hillary is an ingenue. Hillary needed a marriage deal to get power. Condi didn't need that to get where she is, and American women will smell out that difference in a New York minute.

There's no draft Condi movement, nor will there be. It won't be necessary. GW, Rove, and Condi won't leave anything to chance when it comes to the Presidency. Don't get me wrong; Condi will have to compete for the nomination. I think she can do that; and in the coming years, y'all are going to find out that she's not the "flavor of the month" that some think she is.

Barbara Boxer attacked Rice the way she did for a reason. Boxer is Hillary's in-law. Hillary knows what I know.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Bones75]

Nominating Condi in 2008 would be the political master-stroke of the century. The pros outweigh the cons by a long shot.

Bones

[Captain Peter Blood]

Once again we have the Condi in 2008 game going on.
This woman has never been elected to anything and if you check the history of recent elections since 1900 no one has been elected President that first hasn't been elected to some public office. Usually that means being Governor of a State. Only John Kennedy has been elected from the Senate and Richard Nixon had already been elected Vice President and had been in three National Campaigns when he was finally elected President in 1968.
Just because Rice is now Secretary of State doesn't automatically give her a pass to be President and on top of that we don't even know what her positions are on anything.
Also is the U.S. ready to elect a Woman President particularly a Black Woman President?
I think race relations have come a long way and need to go further but I doubt that she could be elected and I don't mean this just as a Southern thing either.
Bottom line is that Condi Rice would be lucky to be on the ticket as a VP candidate but she will never be the nominee of the Republican Party and I think VP is very iffy also.

[Vote 4 Nixon]

You are fooling yourself if you think that the south will vote a black woman for pres or vice pres. It's and old saying, the more things change the more they stay the same. The Northern conservatives are just testing the waters now with this whole condi business but mark my words If the republican Party nominates condi to run in 08' the the south will desert to the democrats in droves. I know I live here.

[Bones75]

She make make up more than the difference with the African American vote.

Besides, I don't really think the south would be as against her as people may think.

Bones

[rface]

I like Condi - but it's too early for me to get overly excited about her. We will learn much more about her in the years to come - and maybe I'll like her even more.

Hillary v. Condi? I'd vote Condi in a heartbeat.

[ops33]

I believe you are correct. I am watching Mark Sanford, Gov of South Carolina.

[gogeo]

Well said, and thought.

[GaryL]

Good point!

[princess leah]

Actually, I was quoting the last phrase of what poster 25 said in reference to Dick Morris's commentary. Just saying that the MSM has been caught out making things up as they go along (ie: Dan Rather making up the story about memo on Bush's guard service).

[GaryL]

I don't remember Eisenhower having any "domesitc experience." Just as back then, we're living in an era when foreign policy experience trumps all. And she's the head of the class in that area.

[GaryL]

Yeah...just like Eisenhower.

[GaryL]

I think you've got this decade mixed up with the 1950's. Most Southerner's are extremely patriotic and care greatly about national security. I think they'd embrace Dr. Rice in a heartbeat!

[lowbuck]

Living here in Europe I was pleased to see how our new SOS performed on her recent visit. Like many of the Presidents cabinet she "says what she thinks and thinks what she says".

She has come far and I still think that it is possible that if the VP (who I like a lot) decides to step aside for health reasons then Miss Rice would be a perfect fit.

Let us see the Senate give their "advice and consent" against a self-made women, of color no less, with quite a story of growing up in Birmingham and rising to consort with Presidents and Kings! Can you see Boxer or Kennedy. . . a confirmation hearing would be a total no win situation for the Dems.

Now with, say, two years as VP who could say she is not seasoned enough to move into the Oval office.

My thoughts for what it is worth. But, I think the idea of Condi Rice running must have Hillary sleepless at night.

Warm Regards to all Freepers,

Buck

[One Dight]

I think the correct step forward would be to put her on the bottom of the ticket as the first female vice president in history. It would only be a shame that she couldn't debate Hillary directly.

[LZ_Bayonet]

"...using the office of the Vice-President for political purposes..."

Just be up-front about it. Of course it's "political", that's why they call them politicians.

[ClaireSolt]

I suggest reading Condi Rice's biography, for more information.