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

[HC4BO]

Well , color me astonished ...

BUT the people who are raising the hype value of a Palin press interview may be setting up the Republicans for a HUGE gain in voter confidence considering the fact that she is NOT that bad at interviews ...

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/palin_on_cspan.php

Granted she may NOT be good at Foreign Policy but when it comes to Energy and Domestic Issues she seems to know something ...

Personally I have this feeling the whole MSM in America are setting us up for another GOP victory this fall and that is royally pissing me off ...

[HC4BO]

Well , color me astonished ...

BUT the people who are raising the hype value of a Palin press interview may be setting up the Republicans for a HUGE gain in voter confidence considering the fact that she is NOT that bad at interviews ...

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/palin_on_cspan.php

Granted she may NOT be good at Foreign Policy but when it comes to Energy and Domestic Issues she seems to know something ...

Personally I have this feeling the whole MSM in America are setting up for another GOP victory this fall and that is royally pissing me off ...

[Ponderus]

The Left needs to stop acting like panicky teenagers and start asking these questions:

Why has John McCain ceded control of his campaign and his party to Sarah Palin? Why would a man of his stature and experience turn everything over to this untested woman? There's only one conclusion: John McCain is a spineless wimp who's letting himself be pushed around by an unqualified and inexperienced woman because he thought it would help him win. Instead, Sarah Palin is positioning herself to shove him off stage and become the whole show herself. She's using him to get her hands on the presidency. John McCain is a henpecked weakling.

[Thron]

These are unnecessary questions. Pure rhetorical one.
The republican party walked like a ghost before Palin. The conservative non-believer in global warming, non-believer in women right to choose, gave to these ideological what they want. I mean what do you need to see an understand that it is just crystal pure political move. The party, the power, the ideology before the economical health of the country. So all the why are a wast of time at this point.

[Eres]

The ONLY conclusion is the right conclusion: Palin is the doing of Rove.

[aembermoon]

McCain's a fool. Better watch his back.

[mi]

Condi, a total failure, is completely qualified to recognize another lame candidate.

[OB08]

Rice is speaking the truth. She is the Secretary of State and close to the President. She knows exactly what is needed to be President or VP. She is telling the truth - if she knew that Palin was up to the job, she would have said so. Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows that she is unqualified except those morons from the GOP far right.

I don't care if she is interviewed by Gibson - it's a set up. She needs to answer questions by the MSM and the American people. It's the same stuff that the GOP has been saying and doing for the last 8 years that McPainful is claiming is the change. I don't think so. That baby is not hers.

President Obama will prevail no matter what lies they throw out at him. Get out and get the votes DEM and spread the truth about McPainful - using the American people for politics.

[dimplesmile7]

Condi Rice does not owe Palin a thing. I am glad she did not openly endorse her.

[Housewife]

Rice is useless. Who cares what she thinks?

[GabrielXL]

George cares. Dick cares. John, not so much.

[hlhicks]

Yet, if she had said how qualified she thought Palin was, you would probably be rejoicing.

[edwarvir]

The WORLD because without her we don't know where we would
be with a screwball like GWB for a president that you people voted into
office. A president that no one wants to take credit for putting into office.
Condi you are right Do not endorse this Liar until She meets the press
and clears up some of these falsehoods. (Lies) She told.

[WatchmanD]

One thing is certain, the level of hypocrisy is absolutely incredible.

[OB08]

You are useless. Unless you walk in Rice's shoes, you have no idea what you are talking about. If Rice felt that Painful was up to the job she would have said so. Painful has no experience - get use to it.

[auramac]

I'm no great fan of Rice, but looks like there's a flicker of intelligence there, at least...

[reuscel]

Intelligence and pure evil are not mutually exclusive.

[qwr]

Rice is smart and accomplished. Any glance at her history will tell you that. What she lacks is a conscience.

[Ginger5]

I agree
I only hope that someone asks her a direct question regarding Palins nat intel qualification

[naeldwyck]

Sorry, she was a specialist on the Soviet Union in the mid-80s, but nevertheless accidentally refers to Russia as the "Soviet Union"? That's about as stupid as McCain's incapacity to distinguish between Shia and Sunni; but he doesn't boast a PhD on the subject. She's shrewd. But smart? I'm not so sure. Next to Bush just about everybody will sound like an exceptional mind.

[petecook5]

I love rice. Some of my favorites are Rice 'n Beans, Red Beans & Rice, Spanish Rice and Rice Pudding.

[Tellecter]

Again -- what an idiotic line of questioning. Palin has more foreign policy experience than Obama. Period, end of statement. Palin has negotiated trade agreements with other countries -- that is more than Obama has done -- and more than Biden has done.

If you think meeting with foreign leaders is somehow experience -- then yes -- Obama's world trip and Biden's 30 years of handshakes somehow qualifies.

Also, I am not sure President of Stanford qualifies Rice to be National Security Advisor -- but she seems to have done a good job as well.

[Berliner2]

You forget to mention that she lives close to the North Pole, which means that she has excellent ties to Santa.

[Aabby]

LOL

[Banji81]

Really? Idiotic line of questioning? Oh, how the standards keep changing.

[itsme23]

HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT WITHOUT SWOLLOWING YOUR OWN TONGUE? You can NOT think that is true...and if you do...I suggest you pick up some periodical­s.....Pali­n has only been to 2 countries in her ENTIRE life!!!! She doens't know jack about foreign policy!!! You are the voter that keeps me up at night! God Bless America if you have your way! If you think that Palin attending 5-6 colleges in 5-6 years in s a fantastic then you are even worse than I thought ...seek help NOW!

[Tellecter]

What I understand is that there are few people that ascend to POTUS or VPOTUS that have exceptional foreign policy experience. What was Bill Clinton's experience? What was Ronald Reagans, what was the Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter's experience?

Please. If you were really worried about Palin's experience in foreign policy -- Obama would not have won, neither would Hillary -- and you would have picked Richardson.

[scandals&skeletons]

Rice is partisan. She could have towed the party line like everyone else and heaped false praise upon Palin when asked. Instead she was honest in her lack of enthusiasm using her position as Sec. of State as an excuse.

[MyThoughts2]

Though I strongly disgree with Rice over her support of Bush and his policies, I understand her lack of enthusiam toward Palin. There is no way that Rice could ever give her endorsement to someone as crued and ill prepared as Palin is for being in power. Unlike, Obama, Biden, and Rice, Palin is an amateur in terms of world politics and the gal , as Palin calls herself, presents herself that way. Any highly professional, cultured, and intelligent person like Rice would strongly resent it when he or she has worked hard and long to move up the ladder and the mail clerk gets promoted over them to vice president.

[bdschiers]

Condi has endorsed and/or defended George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Heck-uva-job Brownie and a long list of other nitwits. If she won't endorse Palin, you know she must be bad news.

[partyofone]

If anyone should recognize the potential for incompetence in national leadership, Rice would be that person.

[scandals&skeletons]

How true. And as unqualified as Rice is, she is light years more qualified than Palin.

[TrooAmerican]

some people mentioned Kindasleezy Rice as a potential VP, but obviously a different more "Experienced" woman was picked.