February 2, 2006
"I think you need to take her at her word that she's not running."
Says President Bush, about Condoleezza Rice, in an offhand statement that gets a headline in the WaPo. Could the line be any less meaningful? It offers no inside information other than a slight vouching for "her word." But everyone knows "she's not running." Whether she will run or whether others will pursue her and she will accept their request that she stand for office are other matters, not covered by the President's statement.
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8 comments:
Hey! Are you saying it depends on what the meaning of "is" is?
I still don't understand why so many people are assuming that Condi will run in 2008. Except for successful war-time Generals, almost no one has managed to run for and win the Presidency without having previously held other elective offices. The exceptions are Taft, Hoover, and arguably Benjamin Harrison. These exceptions come from other times.
In politics, experience is the best teacher. Condi has no doubt learned a lot about bureaucratic maneuvering and how to move up in a bureaucracy. But she has no experience running for any kind of elective office. The learning curve will be very steep for Condi, with no guarantee of any kid of success, and much potential to dash any future hopes. Surely she knows this. I believe that if she were angling for the Presidency in 2008 she would have run for some other office in either 2004 or 2006.
A couple of further thoughts on my previous comment. If memory serves, we have only elected four men based on their military careers: Washington, Taylor, Grant and Eisenhower. Given Wes Clark's flame-out in 2004, I don't think being a general is all that helpful either, these days. (Of course, I did say successful war-time general in my previous post, and Clark was none of those things.)
Second, I believe that Hillary ran for the Senate precisely to get the experience of campaigning, as well as for other reasons. And how many campaigns had she already been through? Still, it is different being in the driver's seat, no matter how many times you rode shotgun.
Earnest, Dems may be winning polls but not elections, but that is no reason to dismiss them entirely. There does seem to be a small bias towards Dems in most polls, but even discounting for that, Bush's numbers have been pretty lousy. Relying on being the least worst option to win elections is going to bite the Republicans on the ass sooner or later.
As much as I like and respect Condi, I think she can be of more value cleaning up the dysfunctional State Dept.
I think you need to take her at her word that she's not running. -- President Bush, serial liar.
How many SOTU points are already proven to be lies in less than 36 hours?
Well, President Bush, serial liar, has already backed off on energy independence from the middle east, and instead of boosting funding for alternative fuels, he is actually gutting the budget for the scientists that study them.
"No one could have imagined in 2006 that I would be running in 2008!" -- Convi Rice.
I for one refuse to take her at her word!
I for one refuse to take her at her word!
I think you're wise knoxgirl, Condoleeza Rice is a known serial liar.
I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile."
The president increased counterterrorism funding several-fold" before 9/11
Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to.
# CLAIM: "The president launched an aggressive response after 9/11." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
# FACT: "In the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush White House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the FBI, an internal administration budget document shows.
# CLAIM: "Not a single National Security Council principal at that meeting recommended to the president going after Iraq. The president thought about it. The next day he told me Iraq is to the side." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
# FACT: According to the Washington Post, "six days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush signed a 2-and-a-half-page document marked 'TOP SECRET'" that "directed the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq."
Quxxo's insistence that Condi is running has convinced me that it's safe to take her at her word that she isn't.
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