Perhaps. But Albright suffered the indignities of sexism, earned the respect of some but never did with some countries where women are still chattel. Rice will suffer the same indignities with sexism, but also racism. In spite of her academic quals and experience, I think she will ultimately fair worse than Albright. The world loved Albright’s boss. The world hates Rice’s boss.
We’ve had a deist; I think that’s close enough.
Besides, I have no doubt that several closet atheists have held the office.
Not in public – Powell always kept his disputes in private – but there are a lot of accounts that it was Powell who convinced Bush to go to the UN one last time to try and convince them to support the Iraq war, instead of going at it alone even sooner.
A perfect example of somebody failing upwards…kind of like Bush.
Don’t you mean more like the four horsemen of the apocalypse?
I am all for diversity and think we should have tons more minorities in positions of power. I’m just sad that this monumental milestone is being passed by Condi
When they show her being interviewed on TV I always look at three things: her bad hair, that gap between her teeth and to see exactly how Bush, no make that Cheney. gets his hand in her ass to make her his puppet without being seen.
Yeah milestone
Boo Condi
She’s been a vicious attack dog for the Bush administration and has unresolved feelings towards Bush (remember the “my husband” gaffe, anyone?). I expect more of the same.
At least the new NSC and Sec Education seem to be improvements, although I still don’t understand why Secretary of Education keeps coming out of Texas, a state with arguably some of the worst schools in the USA.
Who cares that she is black.
Condi looks like she could open up a can of whoop ass on someone.
And she can ice skate. Could Colin Powell ice skate?
Ummm…yeah…I have THREE daughters and I didn’t know that ~d&r~
matt_mcl, I agree with what you are saying, BUT…I don’t think that everyone really thinks that all the white males have it all sewn up and are qualified. I think we just usually refer to the ones that we don’t think are qualified as jackasses. We all know that some white males only get into the positions they are in because of who they know and who they are. I think it would just be repetitive to discuss it, 'twould be a daily chore! 
I want to know why she wasn’t fired after the 9/11 hearings, rather than being promoted.
Historically speaking, Secretaries of States – like other cabinet members – play a leading role in generating policy, seeing as how the vast experience of a government department helps better inform policy discussions.
And, in fact, secretaries of cabinet departments have not always been yes-men. Cyrus Vance stepped down as SecState because he disagreed with Carter’s attempt to rescue the hostages. Dean Rusk kept pressing Kennedy for airstrikes on Cuba during the missile crisis. SecDef Robert McNamera clashed with Johnson over Vietnam.
But Condi Rice doesn’t appear to be much on challenging the President’s inclinations or preconceived ideas. See the books “Bush at War” and “Plan of Attack,” for example, which generally paint Condi Rice as being a confidant, but also as kind of sitting on the sidelines while policies were hammered out in the NSC. Surely there’s a better Secretary of State-designee out there.
Eve:
Tell me you’re being facetious. Cite?
All I’ve ever heard of was a memo that said “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.,” and that there were some suspicions about the Arabs in flight schools kicking around the lower levels of the FBI.
Well, there’s always the question of what is qualified in this particular case. I think she is qualified, but I don’t think that means that Bush isn’t going to use her to his advantage. What I mean is that I think her image is a part of her qualifications.
Bush can now use her as a mouthpiece. Liberals who refuse to listen to him are more likely to listen to her because she’s a black woman. Also it makes her less vulnerable to liberal attacks. I think it may be that simple. It definitely doesn’t hurt that she’s likely to go along with whatever he says. I get the impression that is just how it works in the oval office these days. The guy prides himself on his gut-decisions and unwaveringly sticking to them, I doubt he’s going to tolerate someone who doesn’t support that.
That memo was called “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the United States.” Rice only testified after persistent pressure from the head investigator of the 9/11 commission. Bush refused to testify for even longer and finally consented to an interview with Dick Cheney present the entire time. The 9/11 commission also dug up that the FBI was aware that many of the terrorists were in the country and one of them even rented an apartment from an FBI snitch. There was also documented evidence that many of them who were being monitored obviously had some major outside funding. Oh and there was also the report stating that some of them had enrolled in flight schools. But according to the Bush Administration, it’s no one’s fault. Sorry, I’m hijacking my own thread.
Looking just at her experience, qualifications, and history, she is a perfect fit for SoS in the Bush cabinet.
That’s the only good thing I can say about her selection
Yes she’s qualified. See here
Of course some of those that despise the Bush Admin. will think she’s a puppet and those that approve will find her qualified.
Yada yada yada
I detest Bush, but she’s perfectly qualified. It’s her ideas that are objectionable – Iraq was by far the biggest foreign policy mistake the US has ever made – but there’s no doubt she’s qualified to the post, even if she continues to make disasterous policy.
Ghanima, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way 'cause I’m not trying to shit all in your thread. But I find it disturbing that whenever a top-level appointee that happens to be black is discussed, people feel compelled to bring up affirmative action and pose questions about their intelligence and/or qualifications.
There’s no mystery about why she was chosen. I mean, the woman has served 4 years as Bush’s national security advisor, which is certainly enough time for Dubya to figure out if she’s the kind of person he wants on his team. Nothing stinks in her resume. She’s fluent in 4 foreign languages and has letters behind her name. Her good rapport with the president is a well-known fact. It’s not as if she just strolled in off the street and was handed the job. In my opinion, her qualifications are probably the one thing that shouldn’t be in dispute.
Yeah, if you listen close enough to those kinds of comments, it’s almost as if you’re hearing,
“She’s a fine Secretary of State, ya know, for a black woman”
That attitude burns my arse.
It’s obvious that she is qualified. What I was musing about was if that’s the sole reason she got the position. I think if you read all the posts in this thread carefully that no one is saying she’s not qualified.
I can see how the question is unclear, and I’m sorry. I meant “Which reason is more important/advantageous to George?” not “Is she qualified?” Apologies for the lack of clarity. When I mentioned affirmative action at the cabinet level, I mean that I doubt that placing a less qualified person based on their race would EVER apply to filling these positions. However, one might place an equally qualified person based on their race.
That doesn’t remove the distinct possibility that George was fully aware of the advantage and is going to use that advantage. Why wouldn’t he?
Of course Eve is being facetious, but Condi’s grim insistence that the memo was “non-specific” and an uninteresting account of “historical” data was pretty ludicrous. Here’s a PDF of the PDB.
A short, sweet memo which warns that al Qaeda members were currently working within the US, that they intended to carry out attacks in Washington and New York, and that the FBI had observed “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.”
Obviously, it wasn’t “Colonel Mustard, in the Library, with a Letter Opener,” but it was more than enough to warrant immediate concern. The received wisdom was that Bin Laden and al Qaeda were the previous administration’s “obsession,” though. So la la la. Keep your eye on the ball: How do we get from here to marching on Iraq?
I love the take that James Lileks had on this appointment: