Some people were surprised when I said here last year that my candidate would have been Condoleeza Rice, and had she run for President, I’d have taken time off work to campaign for her. Quite apart from being strong on “my issues,” she had proven herself to be brilliant, super-competent, and more self-made than any other candidate from either major party. Apparently, she was too smart to take on any more thankless tasks, and didn’t run.
Recently, a clueless lad took advantage of a question-answer session when Ms. Rice was speaking at a college campus, and tried to trickbag her with a question about government-sanctioned torture. Watching the video on YouTube, I was struck with the kid’s pompousness…and couldn’t keep from smiling as she dissected him, handing him his butt on a verbal platter.
You could say she “waterboarded” him with his own regurgitated media Kool-Aid.
Watch, learn, and enjoy. The clip I saw was marked “Cougar Alert,” apparently by a youngster since I’m told that “cougar” is a term today’s younger generation uses for attractive, sexy older women. To geezers like me, of course, Dr. Rice is a younger woman.
The lad who made that posting simply got the feline species wrong. Had the kid with the microphone who started a fight he couldn’t finish asked me for advice beforehand, I would have warned him, “Tigress Alert!” Alas for him, it’s too late now.
And I still say – “Condoleeza Rice for President in 2012!”
“And I still say – “Condoleeza Rice for President in 2012!”
I’ll second that.
Mas,
Condi is a jewel in Washington, or anywhere else for that matter.
I met more than one of the Washington crowd, and I’ve not been too impressed. I hear nothing but good about her and look forward to one day meeting her.
I asked the Director of my agency a question once. He actually crossed his eyes and bit his tongue. Now I may not be the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but I do take joy out of asking those in charge questions they should know the answer to, that they don’t have the first clue how to answer.
Call it my evil mind at work if you will. I highly doubt I could do this with her. BTW: she’s got my vote, no matter what she runs for. I suspect though that she is too smart to get in to elected politics.
Biker
Condi has claws alright. If I remember correctly she came up winner in the internal fights with Colin Powell. Would love to read her memoir some day! She is probably too smart to ever run for President.
Plus she looked super hot when she showed up in Europe in those high heeled boots and leather outfit !!
I’ve always believed that America would one day elect a black person to the Office of President.
But I always thought it would be Ms Rice.
Got to love her!!!!!!
I am always surprised at how often I agree with you. Now is not one of those times however! Ditto for Palin and Clinton! Too many qualified folks are overlooked!
As far as the gun rights issue,I like her.But she is a bit of an unknown in other area’s. My reason for saying that is that she was a Democrat till she was nearly 30 years of age and even worked on Gary Hart’s campaign in 84. If your a Pro-Life Conservative,then she probably isn’t your ideal Candidate.
I also have concerns about someone coming from a background with so much baggage in the area of racial segregation.Things like that tend to “leave a mark”which could influence the way one Governs.We these issues with Colin Powell and Barack Obama.he Civil Rights movement is passed and a lot of measures instituted during that time to enforce equality are outdated and unecessary(just like Unions today),but people of that era have trouble getting past it ala Reverned Wright,Jesse Jackson,Al Sharpton etc. who see Racism lurking behind every corner when it really isn’t.Just my 2 cents,no offense to anyone.
Just repeat media talking points over and over, louder and louder and don’t let the other person speak is today’s liberal. When they find themselves on the losing end of a conversation, out come the ad hominems. Ms. Rice showed the kid what alpha is all about and from what I saw from the clip, he was duly humbled.
I also wish that Dr. Rice would have run. She watched her father and other men of the area pick up guns and resist the thugs in the KKK. This tells me she understands the 2nd Amendment much more than some politicians who only pick up a hunting gun for a photo op every election but cannot wait to shaft us when they are safely back in office!
When Mas writes about firearms, I shut up and listen. I have nothing but respect for him on that topic. When he turns to politics, I’m afraid that I often respectuflly disagree.
Harper’s Magazine author Scott Horton responds to Condi’s points. I doubt anybody’s mind is going to be changed on this heavily-polarized topic, but I’d like to provide a link, in case any readers are interested.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/05/hbc-90004883
You can also read my thoughts on this topic at my blog entry, here:
http://jackbootedliberal.com/2009/05/condoleezza-rice-college-student-interview-two-takes/
Hi, Joshua, always good to hear from a graduate.
I have to respectfully disagree with your comment, though, and particularly with your offered support material. Olberman, for instance, seems unable to see the difference between a nation-state’s attack on a military base in a then-remote territory that resulted in mostly military casualties, and a terrorist attack on a non-military target in our nation’s largest city sixty years later. While 9/11 may indeed have been “the Pearl Harbor of our generation,” the price of poker had gone up considerably after the more recent attack. Nor does he mention what Condoleeza Rice and the Bush administration well knew: Bin Laden and Al Qaeda had been making noises for years about accessing nuclear weapons, and there was reason to believe the group might have suitcase nukes already.
Personally, Josh, it struck me that it was Olberman who brought the most “torture logic” to the subject of torture.
Agreeing to disagree,
Mas
Mas,
I was confused for a few minutes as to how Olbermann came into the conversation, until I went back to the Harper’s page and started watching the video at the bottom and saw that it was one of his monologues. Leaning towards the liberal side myself, I do confess that I sometimes like to listen to him and shout, “Yeah, damn right!” at the screen. Heck, I watch American Idol occasionally too. A little vegetative TV is okay now and then.
But when it comes to the actual substance and facts of his comments, I agree with you that Olberman’s not particularly reliable. Sean Hannity on one side; Keith Olberman on the other. Pick your poison–they’re both telling you what you want to hear, IMO.
When it comes to the Harper’s article I linked to, I’m much more interested in the substance of the claims 1-5. I had completely missed that an Olberman video was at the bottom, and am a little disappointed to find out, as I think it potentially degrades the credibility of the article a little bit.
Last point: sorry about the appearance of a double-link. I didn’t realize that your blog would automatically pick up the ping-back from my blog’s link to you. You’re welcome to edit out one of the links if you care to.
Is waterboarding torture? Well, let me tell you a story. I smashed my little finger in the car door the other week and I’m going to lose it. I didn’t know if I was going to puke, poop my pants, pass out or all three. It reminded me that in some countries, pulling a person’s fingernails is used as a torture method.
After what I went through with my fingernail, I’ve decided that if someone ever wants to torture me and is offering a choice between having my fingernails pulled out and waterboarding…I’ll take the waterboarding, thank you very much.
Is waterboarding REALLY torture? you tell me.
This woman presided on the greatest faux war in history and you people praise her lack of vision and forethought? No wonder you lost.
And Mas, In a the country I live in, questioning authority is a tradition handed down from or founding fathers…uinless you don’t like your right to print your beliefs too.
Hi, Brian:
Questioning authority is fine. I’ve spent a good part of my life doing it.
However, to do it successfully you have to do your homework and show that you understand the topic at issue better than the authority figure being questioned.
The kid in the video clip clearly did not.
best,
Mas
Dr. Rice is 100% black. I still think she could be our first black president. But…
She is too intelligent for ‘those’ who pick our candidates for us.
Don’cha love how she wades right into tough discussions with no teleprompter??
Been noticing her since the mid 80s, when her book “Uncertain Allegiance” came out as the old USSR went ‘non-linear’… she was homeschooled, which played a part in the decision to homeschool our 5 children.
Condi was probably the most competent person in all of the Bush Administration; I can’t see much argument against that one. She got the tough jobs, and did them better than they were being done before. Curious as to what she’s up to now, actually.
Willy,
I didn’t know about Her being homeschooled,but I’m glad you brought it up.That suddenly makes her much more interesting to me since we currently homeschool My 7 year old Son it’s tailor made for Him.The current administration is about as much of a friend to Homeschooler’s as they are to gun owner’s.
Maybe I need to take a second look at Ms.Rice
The only statesman in DC was a woman. Condi is a class act, I was hoping that she would relent and run, but I think she was smart enough to know that the time is not right. By 2012, if there is an election, I hope she will run and that our country will have come to it’s senses.
To Brian,
It is fallacy to compare the mindless, Brownshirt behavior of the young leftists of today with the founders of our country. Men like Franklin, Henry, Adams, and even Hamilton were mature men following their own consciences responding to outrages directed at them by a hostile king. Dissent for the mere sake of dissent, for the purpose of making you liberal bones, is a sad substitute for the words and deeds of the founders, men of the Enlightenment, who took their lead from within themselves, not Marxists professors living a life of pertetual adolescence within the rarified environment of academe.
Dean, I believe Dr. Rice now has a fellowship at Stanford.
Someone who is legitimately conservative and can really think would be a welcome addition to the 2012 Presidential race.
The ends can never justify the means. Torture, aka waterboarding, is inherently evil in that it denies the rights and dignity of the human person, and can never be rationalized or justified, no matter what the person may or may not have done. Anyone who will try and justify such an intrinsically evil act automatically disqualifies himself (or herself) from public office or leadership.
This is not a liberal vs. conservative, republican vs. democrat issue, this is a right vs. wrong issue.
Did you know condi said this?:
“But, clearly, the prime minister has laid down some ground rules which any functioning democratic state would insist upon, having to do with, you know, arms belonging to the state, not to — not in private hands. The current circumstances come out of what I think is a very important and indeed appropriate action that the Iraqi government has taken.” – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a news story about a militia in Iraq refusing to lay down their arms. (How about that imported ‘democracy?’)
sourced here:
http://willowtown.com/promo/quotes.htm
Dr. Rice is amazing. This is the first time I’ve heard her say “you had to be there” and I’m a fan. She never said this to the media, or in interviews, or to her critics while in office. That’s just classy as hell.
And is she a “cougar”? As a buddy of mine would say “damn-betcha!” And a Tigress too, Officer A.
Dr. Rice over Dr. Ron Paul? That’s insanity. She’s just another war-mongering RINO who would disarm us all in a quest for “security.”