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
Naomi Wolfe, lol! If she was in any other "field" they would
not let her near a wordprocessor.
She is a RINO at best. You cannot be a Republican and be pro-choice. Sorry facts are facts.
both as a woman and as an African American, should be a parrot for George W. Bush, a man so out of touch.
I would vote for this one.
Wait, I thought Pres. Bush was a parrot of Cheney? I'm so confused..... ;o)
What pathetic ignorance.
However, there is a chance that this article is nothing more than an attempt to get a response to an otherwise ignored journalist.
Talk about brainwashing? Miss Jennifer is braindead!
"She could even go on the David Letterman show, a la Bill Clinton and his saxophone, and play the piano."
Gee, do you think this helps explain why a "smart woman" would actually be a Republican? According to Hunter, a good Democrat is all about being on the David Letterman show and playing a musical instrument. Let's forget about the economy, social issues, public policy, etc. He answered his own question - Condi is too intelligent to be a Dem.
The author has conveniently forgotten to mention that all those Southern segregationists were Democrats.
However, there is a chance that this article is nothing more than an attempt to get a response to an otherwise ignored journalist.
A chance? She specifically asks for it. Poor dear.
At a loss for words, really...the stupidity of what is written here is amazing.
Sometimes it is almost refreshing to encounter a piece so momentously stupid that a flatworm could refute it. Doesn't this article sum up Democratic arrogance and stupidity perfectly?
They would have a chance to run her as a democrat presidential candidate if there were any conservatives left in the democratic party.
Sadly the liberals purged them all.
That's pretty much all that needs to be said.
Racially charged times fueled by whom? Let's say it together......SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS.
The fact that they have such a hard time understanding how Intelligent people can be Republicans, shows the lack of some kind of rational ability, at least. Every liberal I know has this same affliction. I never admit my political leanings until AFTER people get to know me, and the liberals are always shocked, stunned, and dismayed. Then very much intimidated, they dont talk politics anymore after that.
Ms. Hunter, I too was a former Democrat, and I too converted over the 80's. My question to you is, how can rational, intelligent people, NOT see what happened during the 80's and make the switch, at least to Independent. How can they hold on to an ideology which has proven time and time again, to be flat out wrong?
"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. "
I was a Democrat at the time, and getting increasingly impatient with the welfare state and Jimmy's foreign policy disasters. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was, when in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Jimmy whined on TV, "Brezhnev lied to me." I yelled back at the TV, "Of course you putz, that's what he gets paid to do." If that was the tipping point for Condi, what's the big deal?
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