Posted on 11/13/2002 8:39:38 AM PST by Dallas
Condoleezza Rice will defeat Hillary Clinton for the presidency in 2008, New York Times political columnist William Safire predicted during a stop in Ypsilanti Monday.
Safire was the featured speaker at an annual fund-raiser of the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County at the Ypsilanti Marriott Hotel.
Asked if he, a political columnist, misses Bill Clinton in the White House, Safire answered: "Desperately."
"He enlivened my life," said Safire, who awaits the day Hillary Clinton stops being a quiet, respectful freshman senator. He then predicted she will run for president in 2008, but will be defeated by Rice, who is now Bush's national security adviser and will by then be governor of California, he said.
Safire, 72, spoke to an audience of 600 people Monday night without benefit of notes, which surprised no one. After all, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist was a speech writer in the Nixon White House, and is the most widely read writer on the English language.
"So it just comes out," Safire said of his writing during a press conference earlier in the day.
During his speech and question-answer period that followed, Safire talked about the upcoming election in Israel, the approaching political scene here, and U.S.-Israeli relations.
Calling himself a good Republican, he said he nonetheless likes a divided government.
"Gridlock is great," he said. "My motto is, 'Don't just do something. Stand there.' "
The fact that so many Jews vote Democratic is "against all common sense," quipped Safire, who is Jewish, as the audience laughed.
The soft-spoken Safire reminded the crowd that there was a time people doubted Japan and Germany could ever become democracies. "It can happen anywhere if people give it a chance," he said, referring to the Middle East.
During the press conference, Safire, whose column appears in the Ann Arbor News, noted that last week's election results can partly be blamed on Democrats who opposed the war, but not too stridently; and opposed Bush's tax cuts, but were fearful of saying so. In addition, too much money was spent trying to beat Gov. Jeb Bush in Florida that could have been spent on other Democrats across the country.
Safire, a conservative Republican at a newspaper written largely by liberals, is a hawk who hopes the result of a war with Iraq will be the spreading of democracy in the Middle East.
He said the election proved people support Bush's foreign policy.
"Conservatism is better for the country than liberalism," he said, "because it's more tuned to individual freedom."
Bill Zirinsky of Ann Arbor is a regular reader of Safire's column and was interested in what he'd have to say Monday night. "Though he's a Nixon Republican, he manages to write an original column with interesting idea two times a week, and he's been doing it for 30 years," said Zirinsky.
"Ann Arbor has the highest per-capita readership of The New York Times outside of New York," said Jeff Levin, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County. "So we knew that Safire would be a recognized and intriguing personality to present to the community."
Safire, who lives in Chevy Chase, Md., and works at his paper's Washington bureau, looks back on an exciting and varied career as a reporter, columnist, correspondent, novelist, TV producer and historian.
But nothing beats what he does right now.
"Writing about politics for The New York Times is the greatest job in the world," he said.
My wife and I share in the decisions and have never failed to come to an agreement. I asked her to be my partner, not my subordinate. How does your marriage work (or not, as the case may be)?
I'd have voted for Thatcher while holding my nose. The English system is a bit different though, Thatcher wasn't head of state.
No, that would have been the Queen.
You're from here in Philly, aren't you?
Yes, in fact I founded the Philadelphia chapter. I don't recommend you join it, however: a woman is now in charge.
Ooh, law of excluded middle. Love it, love it. Let me try:
"And likewise in your misogynistic world, women are forbidden to read or speak out of turn, have their sex organs mutilated, and are forced to wear the burqa."
Oh yeah, I forgot those extremist pro-lifers can't get elected President. Why, we all know pro-abortion George McGovern beat pro-life Richard Nixon, pro-abortion Jimmy Carter beat pro-life Ronald Reagan, pro-abortion Mike Dukaksis beat pro-life George Bush, pro-abortion Al Gore beat pro-life George W. Bush...
< /sarcasm>
I think it will be RICE/JEB, but what the hell, I will like it either way.
What scares me most is a Hillary / Mc Cain ticket or a Hillary / Powell ticket. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Mc Cain or Powell do not become turncoats.
The dysfunctional denizens of NYC were looking for their daddy after 9/11. They found it in Guiliani. Most of the rest of the country is a little more grown up than to elect him to the Presidency. Guiliani is a adulterous liberal pro-abort traitor to the party (remember that endorsement of Cuomo in 94?). Where's he going to get the votes from to put him on the Republican ticket?
I don't have a problem with women running things like political chapters or their own businesses. But man is the head of the family, and men are meant to run society. That is how God made it. I shudder for the day when we have an emotionally laced woman running this country.
I agree. She's damaged goods. The Dems may be evil, but they're not stupid.
What scares me most is a Hillary / Mc Cain ticket or a Hillary / Powell ticket. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Mc Cain or Powell do not become turncoats.
The potential tickets you mentioned ARE scary. In 2008, both men will be about 72, and I have my doubts about McCain's willingness to be anybody's second banana. Powell, however, is very youthful. But Powell's wife, Alma, has forbade him from running for president, because she is sure that as a black man, he would be assassinated, and if you're that worried, and you DO run, you might as well go for the Number One slot.
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