I Want Condi

From the very beginning, the presidential race should have been between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton opposing Sen. McCain and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It could still be if we quit wasting time.

-- Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal 08/12/08

I don't believe Condoleezza Rice can actually play piano. Everything else she's ever touched has been a fraud and a catastrophe, why should her alleged musical abilities be any different? Think about it. Think about any event she's been even remotely involved in since you first heard her name. An endless string of threats and blundering and arrogant bluffs turned squalid pigfucks. It's not that she can't do her job; she can't do anything. I think when she plays piano the piano catches fire and the audience dies.

So yeah, sure, Condoleezza Rice for Vice President. Time's a wastin'.

But there's one other thing that we're always told to keep in mind when we consider Condoleezza -- I mean, besides her wondrous ability to play an instrument: Whatever happens, It's not her fault.

Sure, she ignored the warnings about bin Laden, and she was shoe shopping during Katrina, and she can't find her ass with her hands on Lebanon, or North Korea, or Pakistan. It's not her fault because those aren't her area.

Her field of expertise is the Soviet Union. Ask anyone at the Hoover Institute. She's just brilliant on the Soviet Union.

She's written books on the Soviets, a dissertation even! She speaks Russian. She has impeccable credentials -- for a top slot in the Ford administration.

So it's not fair to get down on her for her inability to handle Zimbabwe or Iran or Venezuela; George W. Bush needed her at his side in case Brezhnev came back.

And she was a woman and a minority, too! Which would have been really something, in about 1975. But, considering the Berlin Wall had fallen in 1989, making a Sovietologist National Security Advisor was like putting Pocahontas in charge of NASA.

During Dr. Rice's tenure, we've had a devastating terrorist attack and two wars. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians went nowhere, and Pakistan sold everybody the bomb. In 2000, there was serious talk about making Bill Clinton Secretary General of the United Nations. In 2008, Mexico and England are the only places Air Force One can land without dropping flares.

But it wasn't her fault. She was standing watch on the Danube.

She's been trained since birth to handle Russia. If a strongman ever took over there she'd box him in faster than you could say "détente." And if that strongman ever even thought about invading somewhere? She'd know about it, and she'd slap him down faster than you could say "containment."

Or maybe not.

GEORGIA ROUTED AS PEACE BID FAILS

- Headline, Wall Street Journal 08/12/08

So where's Condi, while the French broker a peace treaty?

Has anyone checked the shoe stores?

Comments

[researcher]

this is how incompetent the repubs are

they say things like larger nations dont invade smaller nations in the 21st century.

they are beyond incompetent.

let the religious folks select your leaders and you get 8 years of this

loved the line check the shoe stores

she is as incompetent as nancy and reid. sure she is not a demo?

[GooeyButter]

Kelly hits the nail on the head with this article. The entire Bush administration is incompetent.

[naschkatze]

You almost drew my ire until I read your last sentence. I think the shock the Bush administration has shown over how fast the Russians dealt with Georgia indicates how unaware they have been of the rise of Russia and the Russian military under Putin. This is supposed to be, as you say, Rice's area of expertise and she has been asleep at the switch on her watch. The Russian army is no longer the unsustainable army of the Soviet Union at its end. It seems our government still thinks Russia has too many mouths to feed and can't keep up with the US in an arms race. The Russian military today is lean and mean, and Russia has incredible wealth. We, on the other hand, have been bankrupted financially and militarily by Bush's escapade in the Muslim world. If a new Cold War arises, we will be the ones in second place.

Incidentally, in the nineties I was studying Russian, and a fellow student of mine asked me to proof-read a paper she had written for a Russian Studies class on the demise of the Soviet military. The paper drew heavily, too heavily, on Condi Rice's claim to fame, her explanation of the downfall of the Soviet Union. I think I became well acquainted with Rice's theory which is the explanation of why almost every empire falls, e.g.,Rome: the empire becomes too spread out and can't sustain its support lines. Very brilliant and original, not.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

This person's (Rice) abilities and leadership, as Secretary of State for The United States of America, are so powerful and excellen, that the President of Georgia has requested Senator Joe Biden to respond. Senator Obama, are you paying attention?????

[POTUS2008]

OK. The Issue is that Rice, and Bush, and the Bush administration are terrible at their jobs. One might even say, Criminally neglectful and incompetent. One should also mention they promote illegal and criminal acts by the state, and furthering the taking away of the rights of americans, also know as basic freedoms. With Rice, Bush etc. it is not just that they have very bad intentions, but they carry out their plans with a ruthlessness that includes equal measure of brutality and incompetency.

[fnygy]

Worst National Security Adviser in the history of the job. Worst Secretary of State in my lifetime. If she CAN play the piano - will somebody please MAKE her so she stops ruining or country?

[Jakealoper]

Excuse me, but she was not Secretary of State on 9/11/01

[kdubbg]

No she wasn't Sec. of state, she was the National Security Advisor, which makes the oversight of the largest NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT all the more heinous.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

Excuse me, but your point is irrelevant. Do you understand the responsibilities of the Director of National Security?

[historyprof]

You are correct that Condi Rice was not Secretary of State on 9/11/01. At that time, she was the National Security Advisor, and thus would have been directly in charge of preventing attacks on the U.S., much more so than a Secretary of State would be. She claimed to have had many meetings during the summer of 2001 with then-CIA chief George Tenet regarding the threat posed by Osama bin Laden. Apparently the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing (titled "bin laden Determined to Strike in US"), which spoke about the possibility of plane hijackings and attacks on buildings in New York City, had little impact upon Rice and the then-vacationing President Bush. We all know what happened 36 days later due to their dereliction of duty.

[Areyoukiddingg]

Excuse me, Jakealoper, save your neocon talking points-Rice WAS National Security Adviser on 9/11. Seems Richard Clarke with his hair on fire didn't get her attention. Bush was reading "My Pet Goat" AFTER he had the word that one airliner had crashed in the WTC. Let's put the blame where it belongs; these guys are traitors to allow this and the aftermath to happen to our once great country. It will take 50 years to undo the torture and blowback from these dangerous policies. Regarding the Russian/Georgian conflict; Russia was responding to aggression by Georgia to protect the breakaway provinces-but you won't get that on our "military/industrial complex" sponsored media.

[tbrnotb]

Very succint and to the point, AYK! Nice job.

[freakbrother]

No. She was one of Bush's national security advisors. Better yet.

[MajorKong]

With a lot hard work and more than a little luck, Condi might make a barely passable Junior VP of Marketing somewhere. Otherwise she's way out of her league.

[JessWonderin]

whoa!!! I am in marketing . . . and it takes more than her BS to get that VP spot even in Oxnard . . . .

[blettau]

I cannot believe how we have let paritisanship skew our understanding of reality. How many of us denigrate the doctors, dentists, and counselors that treat us? How many of us have the credentials to evaluate the people who we trust with our health, teeth, and psyche? Is it ok to assassinate someone's character because we disagree with his/her ideologies or decisions? How many of the caregivers in our lives would hold up to the same scrutiny? Would we discard our caregivers due to these litmus tests? It generally doesn't happen... And yet, due to Rice's association with the current administration and her politics, the majority of the comments have diminished her accomplishments and magnified her shortcomings. In the public discourse, the Democrats claim to be the purveyor and protector of civility. How many people can really evaluate Rice's ability to speak Russian? How many people can tell if Fox can speak a high level of Spanish? Maybe I have been distracted as the primary single parent too long... Rather than impugn, let's discuss issues, ideas, and solutions cogently with accuracy, integrity, and humility.

[Truthseeker55]

All of what you said is ridiculous. How many of the caregivers in our lives would we hold up to the same scrutiny? I hope all of them. If my caregiver failed as much in their jobs as Condi and the rest of the Bush click I would have GOTTEN ANOTHER CAREGIVER. You don't keep someone on the job that constantly f@#ks up. That is just idiotic. Is it ok to assassinate someone's character because we disagree with his/her ideologies or decisions? Well maybe not his/ her ideologies but definitely that persons decisions are very important. Would you keep a doctor that made bad decisions? Wait...you probably would.

[nolabels]

Seriously!!!

[mlaiuppa]

Can we sue the Bush Administration for malpractice?

[popecorvo]

The question should be, if we kept returning to the same doctor every time, and we just kept getting sicker and sicker, would it be time to consider changing doctors?

[foxbat]

We evaluate doctors, dentists, counselors, etc. by the results they deliver. If a doctor is treating us and we aren't getting any better, we get another doctor. If you have a dentist that can't get your mouth numb before drilling and says. "Sorry, but we'll just have to do it with pain," you go to another dentist.

What do you do if you have a NationalSecurityAdvisor who's asleep at the wheel? You probably don't make them SecretaryOfState. But if you do, and one of the selling points is that they're an expert in Soviet affairs, then you would expect much more engagement with the Soviets/Russians BEFORE things come to crisis like this.

I agree that you don't assassinate her character based on a personal dislike or association that she may have with the current administration, but I think that it's more than fair to say that there isn't a lot that she can hang her hat on in terms of major accomplishments that would save her from being in the bottom 20% of SecretariesOfState. As the article points out, even if you give her the benefit of the doubt on Dafur, the MiddleEast, SouthAmerica, etc., and even if you overlook the failings as NationalSecurityAdvisor, she dropped the ball on Russia this time. Maybe she can pick it up, run with it, and salvage things, but it probably should have been something on her radar screen since she was touted /"hired" as the expert.

[brooklyncitizen]

Chris...how ya doin'?

Normally I enjoy your posts but this one is particularly strident and off-keel.
I am not a Condi fan. What strikes me about your post is this need to take down Condi as a response to her failings in one area (ok several). Are we surprised at her policies or lack of policies? Hardly. Is she the one at the helm? Hardly. Yet the attacks levelled at Condi seem to be more vicious, always reference race and gender and leave out key facts.

Powell was Secretary of State from 2001-2005, when 9/11 happenned....his legacy in all this is even more disastrous since he put the cherry on the Bush plan to attack Iraq. He lied as they all have but his lie triggered this disastrous event. We were manipulated because he "got" that he was a more credible member of the Administration....by far a worse crime.

If we're going to criticize the neo-Cons, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, ....let's take into account their gender and race (all white male club)....It is similar to what happenned with Hillary where demeaning criticism was levelled because she is a woman....(no fan of Hillary either). As a black woman I can see when the criticism does go too far or goes to areas that have nothing to do with the issue at hand.

The issue at hand is that Condi has been one of the"bad guys"; like Clarence Thomas is; like Rove,Cheney and Bush.

[gerireig]

Good point. Also, I submit that Condi has succeeded spectacularly. The White House wants conflict, friction, and insecurity. They and their donors of Disaster Capitalists thrive in this climate. Can you imagine the amount of missile systems gathering dust if Condi had brokered a secure cease fire anywhere?

[starfire426]

...and yet she remains one of our most inept Sec. of States...EVER!!! As an expert on Russian politics, she's not been able to leave a favorable impression with the Russian people, much less their leaders (as displayed by her last trip there before Putin left office). Talk about empty suit...she's a prime example.

[TXfemmom]

I can't believe that she stayed on vacation while the Georgia/Russia thing heated up. She has to be the most incompetent National Security Advisor and Secretary of State coupled with the worst administration in the history of the nation.

[SethBLiNK]

On 9/11, her defense was that they had had just eight months to gear up, so this was the fault of the previous administration.

Now, they've only had eight years, so Bill should take the hit on this one too.

[grn1]

"Rice's field of expertise is the Soviet Union. Ask anyone at the Hoover Institute. She's written books on the Soviets, a dissertation even! She speaks Russian. She has impeccable credentials -- for a top slot in the Ford administration." But guess what most in the world recognize her as just another lying neo-con

[ignorantwillyharper]

She speaks Russian about as well as Bush speaks spanish, which as President Fox stated...on first grade level.

[brooklyncitizen]

and you know this how?

[HermioneGranger]

She has really no clue about Russia. I saw her in a documentary about the fall of the Berlin Wall and she was uttering wisdoms such as "Russia is a huge country", or, "the men in the Kremlin are rather old". She has the knowledge of a first-grader

[steamboat]

What languages does Obama speak besides english?