http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254502,00.html
Transcript: Condoleezza Rice on ‘FOX News Sunday’
Sunday, February 25, 2007
EXCERPT
WALLACE: We have a couple of minutes left, and I’m not going to let you go without talking about a little politics. What do you think of Barack Obama?
RICE: Well, I know him. I think he’s very appealing and a great person. He’s on my committee. And we’ve always had good exchanges. I think he’s an extraordinary person.
WALLACE: When you say he’s on your committee, you mean the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
RICE: Yes, he’s on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That’s right, that’s right.
WALLACE: Do you think he has enough experience especially in foreign policy to be president?
RICE: Oh, I’m not going to make that choice. The American people are going to make that choice, Chris. And I think it’s also going to be a choice based on whether or not the American people think with any presidential candidate that they are capable of carrying out the responsibilities on terms that the American people agree with.
I think it’s going to be a question of does that person share my values, does that person seem to represent my interests. It will be the same questions that have been asked about presidential candidates since we began this process.
WALLACE: I want to show you a recent Gallup poll, though. Take a loot 94 percent of Americans would vote for their party’s African-American nominee for president, more than would vote for their party’s woman nominee or their Mormon nominee.
I suspect you disagree with Senator Obama on some policy issues. But what do you make of the fact that so many Americans would consider him or any African-American seriously as a presidential candidate?
RICE: I think it just shows that we’ve come a very long way. I do think we’ve come a long way in overcoming stereotypes, role stereotypes about African Americans. I will say race is still a factor. When a person walks into a room, I still think people still see race.
But it’s less and less of a barrier to believing that that person can be your doctor, or your lawyer, or a professor in your university, or the CEO of a company. And it will not be long, I think, before it’s no longer a barrier to being president of the United States. And as I often to repeat to people ...
WALLACE: When you say not so long well, excuse me. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.
RICE: No, no, no, I was just going to say I repeat to people all the time, you know, if I serve my full term, we will not have had a white male secretary of state for 12 years a white woman, black man and a black woman. That’s as far as our country has come, even though we can’t deceive ourselves. Race is still a factor in this country.
Mmm ... mmm ...mmmm ...
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/06/nation/na-rice6
Rice hails Obama’s win as a ‘step forward’
The secretary of State, raised in the Deep South, says, ‘As an African American, I’m especially proud.’
November 06, 2008|Matthew Lee | Lee writes for the Associated Press.
EXCERPT
She called the Democratic president-elect “inspirational” and said his victory was proof of America’s promise.
“This was an exercise in American democracy of which Americans across the political spectrum are justifiably proud,” she said.
“As an African American, I’m especially proud,” said Rice, her eyes glistening with emotion, “because this is a country that’s been through a long journey, in terms of overcoming wounds and making race” less of a factor. “That work is not done, but yesterday was obviously an extraordinary step forward.