Rice Gives "Less Than Hearty" Endorsement To Palin (VIDEO)

"In a weekend interview, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice passed up an opportunity to defend Sarah Palin from allegations that she does not have the foreign policy experience to be vice president," ABC News reports.

In a less-than-hearty endorsement, Rice declined to say anything more positive about Palin than "she gave a terrific speech" and "she's a governor of a state here in the United States" during her interview with Zain Verjee of CNN.

Asked point-blank if Palin has enough experience, Rice said, "These are decisions that Senator McCain has made. I have great confidence in him." Confidence in Palin? Rice didn't say.

Rice added: "I'm not going to get involved in this political campaign. As Secretary of State, I don't do that. But I thought her speech was wonderful."

Via ThinkProgress, here's the video:

As TP notes, "By comparison, Rice responded to Sen. Barack Obama's pick of Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate last month by saying that 'Biden is obviously a very fine statesman.'"

Comments

[iyamchazz]

Poor Condi. How could such a brilliant mind let itself be used so so much by those who don't necessarily consider her one of them.

[08politicaljunkie]

You're right just by calling her "Condi" shows the lack of respect she receives. A former Secretary of State was always referred to by Dr. Henry Kissinger; Americans call Dr. Rice, "Condi."

[paixa3]

Ah....2 peas in a pod, Rice and Palin. Not very clever and very dishonest.

[GatoPreto]

Asinus asinum fricat

[ESerafina42]

Let's hope that her loyalty is ONLY to Dubya and not to his policies, and that like (I would hope) a lot of Republican women, she finds this choice PERSONALLY insulting.

[rzan]

Condoleeza Rice did indeed show some interest in being Vice President, and I was just praying that it would not be her, because she is so smart and so articulate, that I felt it would be too much of a plus for the Republicans, but instead they chose the inexperienced, undereducated person from Alaska. Condoleeza has the experience and intelligence that this woman lacks. It must be a bitter pill for Sec. of State Rice.

[FatherWolf]

Dr. Rice is a cold fish. Brittle and cerebral, given to lecturing without any warmth. While she is undoubtedly intelligent in an academic sort of way, there was no chance of her being chosen as the VP nominee.

Many Americans are suspicious of the kind of intellectual competence that Dr. Rice represents. They want their politicians to appear to be no better than they (the voters) are. The Republicans have tapped into that sentiment for many years, and are pushing it to the extreme with a VP nominee who is small-time aggressiveness personified.

I disagree with all the foreign policies that Dr. Rice has been associated with. But she's always had a much larger view of the world than the Pit Bull With Lipstick.

[Passenger57]

Rice is too closely associated with Bush for McCain to have picked her...actu­ally I think she's been a disaster!
"No one thought terrorists would use planes as weapons","Mushroom cloud", "Birth pangs of a new Middle East"....n­o way! McCain doesn't need THAT baggage!

[Pbrauer]

You guys have it wrong, McCain / Palin is running against the Bush administration, so Condi is making it more believable. It's a ruse, don't be fooled.

[mafeoc]

No love for Condi but...

this might be a time for reflection for her. a belated search for self like Barack, since she been around the old boys club. look for a book from her in the next 2 years.

[omac112211]

Notice Condi Rice shaking her head in a "no, no, no" action.
Its all about the body language!!

[stringer]

Agree with others. Condi Rice has to almost be insulted by Sarah Palin. If Condi were white she would clearly be the VP nominee. But she ain't.

Having said that if anyone, cosmically speaking, deserves to get screwed out of a VP nod it's Condoleezza Rice. Secretary Rice has done MORE than enough damage.

[Amennyc]

Palin stole the rug right under Rice. Palin, a mere "yup yup" who gets through life "yup yuppin''

[BPCentrisAmerican]

No rug was pull out from anyone, Rice did not want the job. The fact is McCain had to bypass much higher qualified Republican women simply because they are pro-choice. The rapid fundi base needs to be placated because McCain needs a ground organization. If McCain wins this campaign and pushes a similar agenda as George Bush, and things get much worse the Republican Party will experience a fall greater than 1932, which put them in the political weeds for 40 years.

[presto]

So the quotation marks do not actually apply to Rice. This is Huffpo quoting Huffpo. That's deplorable journalism.

[mamacat]

Are you sure of that?

[MOSPDC]

it's well known in DC that Condi would show up to cabinet meetings and the good old boys would talk over her while she presented reports. You can't be more educated, well spoken and smarter than them. Exhibit A= Sarah Palin. Unfortunately Condi got pimped out just like Colin Powell. At least Condi went toe to toe with Putin in Russian. Palin is complaining about the media being tough. Try matching up against a thug like Putin. A teleprompter and yup yup ain't gonna cut it.

[Mujokan]

No, it's HuffPo quoting ABC. Obviously. You're telling me you thought it was going to be a quote from Rice saying "I give my less-than-hearty endorsement to Governor Palin"?

Looks like even Rice is looking for change in Washington, though. Can't say I blame her.

[BruntLIVE]

Let's be honest, if Condi was white she would be the VP choice but the GOP white female base is still living in 1960. I feel for the kids, they goto school after being parented by these GOP white women...sh­ame GOP, shame. Look for Rice to bolt and go angry like JC Watts and Colin Powell. It DOES NOT pay to be Black and Republican, you will NEVER be invited to the BIG show, always the little shows to hide the GOP racists. shame

[Jon Raymond - Huffpost Blogger]

If Condi was white she would be the VP choice? What are you saying? Condi is too upiddy?

[DyslexicPalindrome]

No.
He's sayins that she's black.
And he's right.

[Ecoutez]

Too bad her cxonsiderable skills were wasted in this administration. Wish she could have offered them elsewhere.

[Jacob77030]

Sarah didn't write the speech.

[Driver125]

There has to be a politically acceptable pot-kettle-black joke in here somewhere, but it hardly seems worth the effort to construct it. Suffice it to say that when last observed, two Republican female dogs were seen running down the road to Oblivion, Alaska growling and snapping at each other's flanks. Hey now..... wait....Bi­rds of a feather?

[Barbara2423]

Condi has a Ph.D and was a professor at Stanford University. I see why her comment was less than enthusiastic about Sarah Palin.

McCAIN=(Bush, Cheney & Rove)