Tomorrow's Time Magazine 'Surprise': Obama Listens to....Condi Rice?

This week's issue of TIME magazine, arriving on Friday, details the surprising respect and productive relationship between Barack Obama and Condoleezza Rice.

Massimo Calabresi writes that Obama and Secretary of State Rice, one of the architects and defenders of the Iraq disaster, among other Bush administration failures, "have come to have a certain respect for each other... because both take an intellectual, sober view of foreign affairs."

An aide to Barack Obama tells Calabresi, "They've had good exchanges. Does he treat her as someone whom he has respect for? Absolutely. Does he listen to her on occasion? Absolutely." The aide added that Rice "can expect the phone calls to continue."

The article opens: "A few days before he left on his eight-country world tour, Barack Obama wanted to discuss the trip with an old contact in Washington: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Obama's phone call was in part courtesy, but over three years of occasional phone conversations, the two have quietly discussed everything from foreign aid to the Middle East and nuclear proliferation.

"The little-known Rice-Obama link is just the latest surprise in a summer of unexpected shifts in American foreign policy."

Calabresi reports that Rice is trying to "clean up" the Bush mess and that the latest diplomatic moves orchestrated by her "signal the latest triumph of realism over ideology -- and a victory for Rice and her diplomatic team over the neoconservatives led by Vice President Cheney. The moves amount to an unmistakable effort to clean up Bush's foreign policy legacy before he exits the stage."

Ken Duberstein, the former Reagan aide, tells TIME, "This is bold strategic diplomacy with an eye to the history books."

TIME also studies the coming campaign in the battleground state of Michigan and concludes that Obama is in some trouble there. Amy Sullivan relates: "Michigan has gone Democratic in every presidential election cycle since 1988 -- but it could surprise this time around. While Democrats usually benefit when economic concerns dominate an election, Barack Obama is running only a few points ahead of John McCain in statewide polls, a margin neither side considers safe. Adding to Obama's challenges is the fact that several of the state's Democratic leaders are wildly unpopular, under indictment or both ... What is certain is that Obama's 4-point lead in recent statewide polls means little in a state with a tradition of making last-minute decisions."
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Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.

Comments

[racom]

06:10 PM on 07/31/2008

Page 2,
Rice has a very similar attitude as Bush himself. Who can forget how bush would not cut his vacation short and do something at the time of the Katrina disaster. I remember convoys of FEMA supply trucks pulled to the side of the road, couldn't get into NO, it was flooded and impossible to go there. While they sat on their ass without leadership other relief trucks from individual­s were driving past the FEMA trucks and delivering water, food, life saving supplies, etc. I remember ship loads of needed supplies coming from other countries that were turned back for political reasons. I remember, 'heck of a job, brownie', the head of 'the gang that couldn't shoot straight', the guy who was concerned about where he would have his dinner each evening while dead bodies floated through the city streets. But bush did interrupt another vacation to fly back to DC for emergency legislatio­n regarding the Terry Schiavo issue. The hypocrisy is so out there for all to see. Rice should not be 'taken seriously'­, she should either be prosecuted or banished forever but she will be rewarded as has other administra­tion failures.

[racom]

05:57 PM on 07/31/2008

No matter how much lipstick they use, the woman is forever tainted by her 8 years of service in the most corrupt administra­tion in our history. Just as Colin Powell will never escape his never to be forgotten UN performanc­e. I remember how lavish the praise for the great intellectu­al mind of kissinger, he still is/was morally corrupted. People with great intellectu­al capacities must also be measured on humanity issues and terms. Rice, like Kissinger fail the test, they do not see people, they see power and wealth. Where was Rice when New Orleans was under water with people waiting for days for drinking water, food, hoping for safe rescue? Our citizens were dying in one of our great cities and I remember rice busily shopping for new shoes in NY at the time.

[jeanrenoir]

11:50 AM on 07/31/2008

An intellectu­al, sober view is just what we need. Apparently­, Rice is finally having some influence on Iran in her struggle against the neocon crazies who would rather nuke Iran back into the Stone Age than have a Kissinger-­Hans Morgenthau adult conversati­on with them about their interests and OURS. Rice is no dummy; she's just been enveloped, as Powell was, by an army of neocon fanatics and dolts in the Bush administra­tion from Day 1, the very antithesis of the tough-mind­ed, dispassion­ate, objective realism of her mentors, Scowcroft, Baker, and Bush I, who were actually extremely effective in foreign policy, among the best we've had. I say all this as a fervent admirer of Obama, who has openly advertised himself from Day 1 as a politician from Chicago who offers us the replacemen­t of stupid ideologues on both the left and the right by a man who, like the highly effective realists who run Chicago, can actually get things DONE in the world, things that work for the general good. I'm delighted that the realist Obama is running, and winning. But a part of me, perhaps a perverse part, would have loved to have seen Dick Morris' perfectly plausible prediction come true this year: namely, a no-holds-b­arred battle for the White House between Condi and Hillary. What a debate THAT would have been. Hillary would have met her match in every respect--i­ncluding relentless ambition, ego, and steely mastery of details--i­n Condi.

[racom]

12:53 PM on 07/31/2008

WOW, the rice I remember is the stumbling, mumbling, incoherent­, obfuscatin­g rice before the 9/11 commission­!!! Now, that was a stellar performanc­e. You can measure her worth by the total lack of accomplish­ments as the NSA that slept through all the many warnings prior to 9/11, you can try to find some, any thing will do, results as sec state, but look until the cows come home, it ain't there!!!

[wayoutleft]

11:20 AM on 07/31/2008

"surprised­" that obama is loaded with center-rig­ht, right wing, and neocon policy advisers? obama aspires to the JFK accomplish­ment: conducting a center-rig­ht, militarily active administra­tion while keeping himself above those actual policies; and keeping his image distinct from them. the pope also operates like this. personally­, my taxes would definitely go up if the bush cuts expire; but i have been progressiv­e despite that. now i might want to protect my money if there's more 12+ billion/mo­. war as far as the eye can see under either candidate.
so obama is center-rig­ht and more neocon than progressiv­e. that's who you compromise­d your way into supporting for the nomination­. just don't insult me by claiming you're surprised. this isn't a child's backyard birthday party where the clown turns out to be the old guy down the block. this is a presidenti­al campaign where the clown turns out to be the old guy down the block. voting center-rig­ht has become a reflex among progressiv­es, who start out with the belief they can't win. i'm not sure dennis k ever understood that the democrat who agree with him would ever support him.

[loper2008]

11:05 AM on 07/31/2008

I'm not worried about Michigan, Barack has barely campaigned there. He will win Michigan by at least 5 points in the GE.

[tompoe]

10:52 AM on 07/31/2008

Corporate media continues to amaze and bamboozle. Rice, the war criminal, is respected and listened to by Obama. Nice touch. Will the article quote Obama, directly? Will it refer to specifics? Or, will it, as it has since 2000, regurgitat­e the propaganda of the Bush war criminals? Can't wait to reject yet another slimy issue of Time magazine outright, tomorrow.