Posted on 07/26/2006 4:23:45 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
It has always mystified me that Condoleezza Rice is a Republican. She's black, she's a woman, she's smart. (OK, I hear all you Republicans snorting and getting ready to e-mail. I will grudgingly allow there are other bright right-wingers -- but few black women Republicans, and who would sign up after the disasterous Bush White House response to Hurricane Katrina?)
It seems so counterintuitive that Rice, a woman raised in the racially charged atmosphere of Birmingham, Ala., in the 1950s, who knew two of the girls who were killed in the church bombing there in 1963, who had to overcome latent prejudice in academia, both as a woman and as an African American, should be a parrot for George W. Bush, a man so out of touch. What has she been smoking?
In fact, Rice was a bona fide Democrat until 1980, when she had an epiphany after overhearing a remark by President Jimmy Carter. He said he was shocked by the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Rice, a scholar of Russian politics, was "shocked that anybody would be shocked by that," explained Nicholas Lemann in a profile of Rice for the New Yorker. Two years later she flipped to the GOP.
In some ways, Rice had always been a conservative, Lemann reported, untouched by the militancy of the '60s, including the civil rights movement; an only child who never rebelled; a woman who applied for post-graduate work at Stanford University on stationery that had her name embossed in gold across the top.
But as the saying goes, it's never too late to change. Or, in Rice's case, revert.
The Democrats could use Condi in the next election as a presidential candidate. Think about it: The Bushes got their hands on Rice when she was young and impressionable. She worked for Bush senior and got to know him well before she signed up with Dubya. It is hard sometimes to believe, when one hears her at press conferences or listens to her speeches, that she is saying what she believes, but rather that she is elegantly explaining -- since he can barely do it himself -- President Bush's positions.
"He's actually influencing her," notes Lemann, "and she seems to be performing for him the immensely useful service of transforming shorthand impulses into developed stated policy. When you hear Rice speaking, that's what Bush would sound like if he were as articulate as Rice is."
So what the Dems need to do is figure out how George capitivated her and impress upon her the error of her ways. I would love to see a woman in the White House next time, but I don't think Hillary Clinton is going to make it; her heart is in the right place, but she is too divisive and her recent speech at the Economic Club of Chicago made me want to put my head down on the table and have a long nap.
Hillary does not have the rhetorical flourishes to impassion those around her.
And, Rice -- if only she could be loosened from the Bush grasp and reprogrammed to become less aloof -- would make a dandy Democratic candidate. She could even go on the David Letterman show, a la Bill Clinton and his saxophone, and play the piano.
So this is my advice to the Democrats. Recruit Rice, develop some kind of solid program we bleeding heart liberals could embrace and then, get back into the White House! Got that?
mailto:jhunter@suntimes.com
Maybe Rice is a Republican because the thought of consorting with the slack-jawed morons in the Congressional Black Caucus fills her with nausea.
Typical Lib thinking. First, recruit a female/ethnic/"parrotlike" figurehead (who is easily duped by the likes of that idiot Dubya), second, only then figure out what your activist base will buy, so that, third, you can achieve your goal of the position of power. Then, you'll have a talking head, with a contrived agenda, ready to do ... what? Hollow and empty, start to finish.
This article touches on what is perhaps the main reason I hate Democrats: their unflinching belief that they are smarter and better than everyone else. Even my sister and brother-in-law, who are otherwise very good people, have this attitude. And my sister hates Coulter, because she shoves that same attitude right back in her face.
Jesus tells us it not by words but works that one can be known - Like I mentioned many times - and you refuse to answer - until you have actually found yourself in the situation you judge others by, and then act according to what you believed you would do - you have no basis to condemn others...only to think: "There, but for the Grace of God, go I."
(If you were to qualify your 'word' with , I BELIEVE, or I HOPE I would do such and so in this situation - that would be different. But to empirically state it as fact, Nuh uh )
It may be comforting to hold oneself in higher regard than others - but when the sh*t hits the fan is when we get to test our resolve. Therefore, if you haven't faced the situation yourself, do you have the right to wax superior over others?
I do not post this in expectation that you will answer - you've dodged it every time - but for others who might be reading this exchange.
So, Am I "unable to just take" you at your word?" Once you have faced the dilemma and walked your talk...until then, NO.
On smart puppy ;o)
Because the 2 girls were killed by Democrats?
Ah-Men!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, Can't you just see the Congressional Black Congress having to deal with a President Rice!
What a sweet picture that conjures up.
I wouldn't wonder that a Pres. Rice would bring up the fact that a BLACK caucus is racist..........
Condi says she isn't interested in running for office = I think we need to draft her!
If Hitlery does indeed become the dimWits candidate, and we ran Condi - then the question of a "woman president?" would be out of the way = mute. Then it be only who is the best candidate. Hands down, CONDI = even among many dems, I believe.
I am not enthusiastic about any of our proposed candidates, so far. I like Congressman Mike Pence
http://www.pence08.com/
but don't see as he's being looked at.
Frist makes me shake my head. He's giving up a vital republican seat in his pipe dream of becoming president. Who needs a weak-kneed wimp in office?
(If you were to qualify your 'word' with , I BELIEVE, or I HOPE I would do such and so in this situation - that would be different. But to empirically state it as fact, Nuh uh )
That is fair enough. I explained myself very genuinely and respectfully in the post that you took my statement from. I can't believe we are arguing over Abortion. This just continues to stun me and to think that you have supporters stuns me more. At this rate abortion will never be abolished which I guess according to your hypothetical scenarios is a good thing. This stuff about words and God is alright to say, but I will stand up and get my judgement from God with the knowledge that I believe that abortion is not a good thing for America or the babies that have to go through it. I don't worry about others and BTW, I have known many people who have had abortions and I don't shun them. The topic is not discussed. We still go out to dinner, parties, work with them, etc. I just don't understand my getting ponded on this on of all things by my fellow FREEPERS. Trust me I am all about getting flamed when I deserve it...happened many times, but I truly believe that my position on abortion is correct. And you thought that I would not respond! lol.
Thank you!
The author is totally racist. And it neglects the fact that as an adviser...she was...and still is... powerfully influencing the W positions.
The news about her being democrat is frankly old news, and also should force the writer to do some self-examination.
But I won't hold my breath. Strikes me as a Knee-jerk non-thinker of the Left.
Ms. Hunter,
One wonders if you are incredibly stupid or on drugs, if not both.
You seem to have a very loose grasp of history and to have barely skimmed the Cliff Notes version of Condi's backstory.
A little remedial education would reveal that it was the Democrats, including Al Gore's father and Robert "KKK" Byrd who opposed the Civil Rights Act. It was conservatives like Charlton Heston that were marching with Martin Luther King.
You're bigotry is astounding considering you write for a major city paper. Do you assume all blacks must be on the Democratic party plantation? Do you have a problem with uppity nigras?
I'd advise you to get over your white guilt and consider why you have not joined Condi in the Republican party.
TC Rider
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