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Why is Condi Rice a Republican? And can she be reprogrammed? (NOT A PARODY ALERT)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | July 26, 2006 | JENNIFER HUNTER

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bush; condi; diversity; election2008; hillary; lefties; liberals; mediabias; rats; rice; tolerantleft
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To: Chi-townChief

I heard Condi speak one time and she said that her family was Republican because it was the Republicans who registered her grandfather to vote in Alabama. In other words--it was the Republicans who brought opportunity to Blacks in Alabama during the days of Jim Crow and segregation.


61 posted on 07/26/2006 5:14:25 AM PDT by rhetorica
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To: Chi-townChief
Condi Rice speach to the Republican National Convention in 2000 --

"The first Republican I knew was my father and he is still the Republican I most admire. He joined our party because the Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I.

I joined for different reasons. I found a party that sees me as an individual, not as part of a group. I found a party that puts family first. I found a party that has love of liberty at its core. And I found a party that believes that peace begins with strength".

This is why she's a Republican.

62 posted on 07/26/2006 5:14:57 AM PDT by jerod
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To: Daveinyork

I seem to recall a Republican National Convention speech by Condi, either in 2000 or 2004, when she talked about why she is a Republican, and it is because her parents have always been Republicans.

The Democrats in Alabama would not register her parents to vote because they are black.


63 posted on 07/26/2006 5:17:53 AM PDT by BaBaStooey (I heart Emma Caulfield.)
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To: jerod

Thanks for finding that.


64 posted on 07/26/2006 5:18:15 AM PDT by BaBaStooey (I heart Emma Caulfield.)
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To: redgolum

It is kind of interesting to see the extent of this whole new generation of democrat bigots.


65 posted on 07/26/2006 5:21:20 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: Chi-townChief

Yeah - How dare that uppity woman Dr. Rice reject group-think and actually use her own brain?!?


66 posted on 07/26/2006 5:22:06 AM PDT by MortMan (There are 10 kinds of people in the world... Those that understand binary and those that don't!)
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To: jerod

Very succinct - thanks!!


67 posted on 07/26/2006 5:22:07 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: Chi-townChief

It is the State Department environment. They begin to believe they can talk and the words will mean something to evil.


68 posted on 07/26/2006 5:23:59 AM PDT by bmwcyle (Only stupid people would vote for McCain, Warner, Hagle, Snowe, Graham, or any RINO)
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To: Old Grumpy

The President didn't bite his (own) lip effectively enough, I guess.


69 posted on 07/26/2006 5:24:15 AM PDT by MortMan (There are 10 kinds of people in the world... Those that understand binary and those that don't!)
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To: Chi-townChief

Condi became a Republican just like I did. In the Texas of my youth I was repulsed by the ignorant bigotry towards minorities. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was supported by most Republicans and a few Northern Democrats. However, the Dixiecrats of the South were 100% against giving the vote or any other rights to minorities. Because I spoke up in class for the rights of minorities, I was physically attacked by 5 of my classmates with the assistance of the teacher (Mr. Roach flew a Confederate flag in his classroom instead of Old Glory). I have been a Republican since that time. I won't forget what the Democrats stood for!


70 posted on 07/26/2006 5:24:28 AM PDT by darth
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To: Old Grumpy
I still haven't figured out what Bush did WRONG after Katrina.

He didn't have Tony Snow on board.

71 posted on 07/26/2006 5:25:25 AM PDT by You Dirty Rats (I Love Free Republic!!!)
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To: napscoordinator
"She is a RINO at best. You cannot be a Republican and be pro-choice. Sorry facts are facts."

You sounds just as bad as the Democrats who are sweeping Joe Lieberman out of that party. You can't be pro-war and be a Democrat, eh? The world, and the Party, are not that black and white.

72 posted on 07/26/2006 5:26:08 AM PDT by T.Smith
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To: Loyal Buckeye

Apparently, she also does not know that she is a Republican because the Dems would not allow her grandfather or father to register to vote but the Republicans did. That tidbit from Condi Rice herself.


73 posted on 07/26/2006 5:28:22 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: Chi-townChief

So the only way to make a Republican a Democrat is to brainwash them?
Why not, most commie nations had re-education program so Hunter is
merely reverting to form. Problem is brainwashing is difficult on
rational thinking adults.


74 posted on 07/26/2006 5:29:02 AM PDT by RetiredSWO
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To: carlr
"In an article full of racist, demeaning remarks, this one takes the cake.

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."

I'm reminded of something...


75 posted on 07/26/2006 5:29:06 AM PDT by T.Smith
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To: 7thson

Interesting.

How does this square with my liberal acquaintance saying that all things good in this country were created by the libs? lol


76 posted on 07/26/2006 5:30:51 AM PDT by Loyal Buckeye
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To: Loyal Buckeye

Your lib acquaintance is either misinformed, stupid, a liar, or all the above.


77 posted on 07/26/2006 5:32:47 AM PDT by 7thson (I've got a seat at the big conference table! I'm gonna paint my logo on it!)
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To: Chi-townChief
OK, I hear all you Republicans snorting and getting ready to e-mail.

Don't bother writing to her -- it's just what she wants, and swhe'll cherry-pick quotes to make you look bad. If you are incensed enough to write a response, write to the editor directly, and show her pattern of racist and stereotypical comments, and ask the Sun-Times why they would allow these types of slurs to appear on their pages.

78 posted on 07/26/2006 5:34:18 AM PDT by kevkrom (Posting snarky comments so you don't have to)
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To: jwparkerjr

It never ceases to amaze me that the Dim-o-crats retell facts into what they WANT them to be, until they become total fairy tales. ESPECIALLY when they pertain to President Bush.


79 posted on 07/26/2006 5:39:00 AM PDT by Old Grumpy
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To: All
She's black, she's a woman, she's smart.

Jennifer, you must be awful jealous. Imagine a black, smart, woman who happens to be a Republican. She is much more intelligent than you give her credit for, since she has a mind of her own and makes sound decisions.

What has she been smoking?

Better question, is - What have you been smoking? Mary Jane????

Rice -- if only she could be loosened from the Bush grasp and reprogrammed to become less aloof -- would make a dandy Democratic candidate.

In your dreams Jennifer. I think you must have been dropped by a stork from 200 feet or fallen off a very tall turnip truck this morning.

80 posted on 07/26/2006 5:40:18 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (The media and the democrats are the biggest supporters of the terrorists.)
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