In an otherwise decent New York Times Book Review appraisal of Twice As Good, a new biography about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland displays the tin ear so many of his compatriots (the
None of this would matter much if Mabry's subject were merely a departing secretary of state. But it's plain, even from the jacket photo of a 9-year-old Rice posing outside the White House, that this is a book about a woman who just might become president. She certainly has the right profile for it: moderate on abortion and gay rights, firm on guns, a Californian, Rice could someday be the Schwarzenegger Republican the party is looking for. There is no doubt that she has the self-discipline and confidence. She has already come so far; who would bet against her going farther?Um, everyone? The idea that anyone associated with this disastrous administration and the endless horrorshow in the Middle East might ever regain a shot at the big levers of power defies credulity. I mean, how badly could the Democrats botch things that Rice or even Colin Powell or particularly anyone with the last name Bush would ever be considered a viable candidate for the highest office in the land? Could any Democrat really be that incompetent?
What's that? All of them? Oh.
Madame Secretary [NYT]







Comments
Such a shame too, cause, her baffling loyalty to Bush aside, I kinda like her.
Aside from her glaring incompetence as National Security Advisor, inability to get anything done as Secretary of State, and scary loyal to an authoritarian moron, she's ggrrrreat!
maybe if she stopped hot-combing her hair and holding it in place with bobby pins. c'mon, baby, grow a natural and change your name to Assata Shakur.
I can just see Republicans lining up to vote for a single woman. Excuse me, a black single woman. Throw in an illegitimate kid or two and it's a lock.
Anybody else hear that rumor that she refers to the President as 'My Husband?'
Maybe if she wasn't a toadying tool whose most recommendable trait is her facility for blind obeisance to authority, sure -- she'd be a bang-up president!
This mirrors the article I just wrote, Could Zombie Margaret Thatcher Attack (And Reform) Downing Street?
@LolCait: Not that she's dead or anything. But, you know.
@American Standard: Yes, but she has a very big ship named after her. One that TRANSPORTS OIL. For Republicans, that erases all that other shit.
does so color her lips with the blood of liberals?
i've never seen red that, well, red.
@ellagood: It's actually stage make-up. George makes her perform a solo version of Uncle Tom's Cabin in the Rose Garden every lovely morn.
Rice could someday be the Schwarzenegger Republican the party is looking for.
Um, isn't Schwarzenegger already the Schwarzenegger Republican?
Bush just commuted Libby's sentence.
Absolutely no one in this administration is accountable. It might not be a case of them having a tin ear - more like a realist perspective.
@Clarence Rosario: Schwarzenegger can't run for president, so they're looking for the next best thing that wasn't born in Austria.
@karion: I agree -- "tin ear" is the wrong term. "Brass balls" or "middle finger to the American public" might be more apropos.
I'm sorry, did she say anthing after "I believe the name of the memo was 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Within the United States'"?
@Colonel Mustard: Schwarzenegger can't run for president
Not according to the fine film, Demolition Man. And if it's in a Stallone-Snipes vehicle, it's good enough for me, and should be good enough for you.
President of the Hoover Institute? Sure. President of the Heritage Foundation? Maybe. President of the United States?? Freedland should hustle back over to the Guardiyarn and shut up about US politics.
And she's Secretary of State hot.
@LolCait: are you sure? i think i can detect the glint of embalming fluid in that pic.
A black woman with unflinching loyalty to the most unpopular president since Nixon? I'd say she's a shoo-in.
She reminds me of Nurse Ratchet. Not sure she is black or a woman. That aside, the voters usually go for Governors, since Gov.s have at least some experience with a budget, though in the present administration, that hasn't helped a whit.
Balk,
Thank you for that last paragraph. Let me be first to recommend My Cock as a write-in on 08 ballot.
Truly, the gaping, drooling ignorance of the nuances of American politics among the UK mediarati is nothing less than absurd. Beckett couldn't have written anything more dissonant than their coverage of the US presidential races. According to half of them, the front runner is Fred Thompson.
Back to not believing in justice. Can we sick that California judge on Libby?
@Itsjustcatnip: Gold star. The next time Bush goes out on a boat, I hope it runs adrift on the sunny shores of Gitmo.
No.
Listen up, suckers. If Dick Cheney decides he wants to appoint this bitch preside, then that's exactly what he's going to do. Unless you want to see more kindly old Republican lawyers shot in the face.
Now get back to reading about Lindsay Hilton Spears and leave the non-coverage of politics to the pros.
@Mediahohoho- well he's certainly going to need the immunity/get-out-of-jail-free cards.
Let's face it: we're a nation more upset about Paris Hilton not doing enough jail time than about Ragged Dick and his Amazing Barely Talking Bush doing none.
There's no reason to believe this round-the-clock Ream-a-Rama won't continue. That burbling puff you hear is the republic giving its last fart over anything important.
...or, perhaps, it's your air conditioner going on the fritz.
Will Putin be the new Blair?
Look, we all know she's been one hot mess with the War on Terror (tm), but remember: she's a Sovietologist with advanced comprehension of drunk-Yeltsin slurred Russian, and probs knows all of Putin's secrets. If we re-enter the Cold War, she's our next John Foster Dulles. Oh wait, he was SoS too, not president...my point is, we've not seen the end of Condi's career, oh my goodness no.
Too black and female for Republican voters.
Too grossly incompetent and Neo-Clowned for Democrat voters.
And The Economist feigns progressiveness again within its persistent White Man's Burden.
@Mean_Ol_Liberal: Exactly. Ain't gonna happen. A horrible, no-count SoS with no lasting legacy.
Russia is angling for renewed importance. Anti-American sentiment is high east of Europe. The Slumbering Bear has awakened for summer, and she smells fresh Yankee blood.
@KarenUhOh: Ignore that puff. It's just Nero looking for a working match.
You could park a Buick between her front teeth.
Nice Lucy Van Pelt do, Condi.
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