Condoleezza Rice (1954- ), also known as Doctor Rice or just Condi, has been the American secretary of state (foreign minister) since 2005. She truly believes in freedom and democracy and wants to bring them to the Middle East.
Because she is young and black and a woman, some assume she does not know what she is doing and is making things worse. As it turns out, she has made far more progress in the Middle East than Colin Powell, who came before her and whose abilities few doubted. The president trusts her completely.
Like Kissinger, Nixon’s secretary of state, she was once a professor. She taught political science at Stanford University and later became provost, which put her in charge of how Stanford spent its money and what it taught. She balanced Stanford’s books – something that few thought was possible.
When Kissinger was a boy his family had to flee Germany because they were Jews. Had they stayed, Hitler would have sent them to his death camps. Kissinger’s view of the world is understandably a dark one.
Rice grew up black in America, which is not easy. Yet when she was a girl she saw the fall of Jim Crow laws that kept blacks down in the American South where she grew up. Later she saw the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Freedom and democracy won the day where many doubted that it would or ever could. So her view of the world is a hopeful one.
She believes that democracy can do for the Middle East what it has done for America, Europe and parts of Asia; that it is just a matter of time before democracy takes root there.
She saw it happen to the Soviet Union, which she knew so well. In fact, she was one of America’s leading experts on the Soviet Union. She even learned to speak Russian. But before she rose high enough to put her knowledge to good use, the Soviet Union fell.
The world has changed, but not how she thinks about it. She has simply put Iran and Islamism in place of the Soviet Union and communism. The enemies are new and different but the fight is an old one of good (America, freedom, democracy) against evil (then communism, now Islamism).
Bush remembered her from when his father was president. She was one of his father’s advisers on Eastern Europe. So when he ran for president himself he brought her in as one of his chief advisers on foreign affairs. He made her head of the National Security Council in 2001 and then secretary of state in 2005.
Few blacks are Republicans. She became a Republican in part because she saw how the Democrats refused to let her father vote.
Her name comes from Italian: con dolcezza – “with sweetness”.
She is a pastor’s daughter, her mother a schoolteacher. They taught her that she has to be twice as good to overcome white people’s feelings about her colour, something she knows from experience to be true.
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Dr. Condoleeza Rice is one of the most fantastic black females I have ever know of. I am so attracked to her. She just gives me hot chills all over. I hope that she continues doing all the good for all races and countries in need of a person with knowledge, experience and courage. Condoleeza, “You Go Girl”.
Much love and admiration,
William
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Dr Rice does not have quite that effect on me, but I do admire her.
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I love her too, Condoleezza Rice is so beautiful. I love it, when the media brings articles about her and pictures of her.
I am a white male living in Denmark, Europe.
I descend from black slaves on U. S. Virgin Islands, then the Danish West Indies.
I admire Condoleezza Rice very much. I remeber reading in a Danish newspaper, that her parents told her, when she was a little girl, that she could not dine at the local restaurant, because she was black, but she could become President of the U.S.A.
And I saw in 60 minutes, that one of the three little black girls, who were killed, when KKK bombed a church in Birmingham, Alabama, was a schoolmate of her.
Condoleezza Rice is so beautiful.
I think, she is doing a terrific job, trying to bring peace and democracy and wealth to people in the Middle East and Africa.
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i am not europeen i live in north of africa i dnt speak english very well
i am white male i think that condy is beautiful girl i do’nt love policy but i my dream is speaking with her touch her because i love her , i dont know why i love condy very well
sure i love condy but i do not love his policy
because policy of white house do not respect human right
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I think Condi is an idiot. She achieved WHAT? in the Middle East WHAT? Name one bloody thing? I think if you support African Americans or any people of colour then you should have the integrity to call a liar a liar, a fool a fool and a moron a moron. Blindly supporting Rice just because she is a woman and black is a massive disservice to coloured people. Be brutally honest or shut up.
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For one, no attacks on American soil since 2001. Another thing, the woman possesses a doctorate in political science and she speaks fluent russian. That disqaulifies her from idiocy. For those reasons, and admittedly others, I am a big fan of hers. Also keep in mind, she is a cabinate member and not an elected official. So final decisions are not hers.
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Only time will tell how good Condi Rice was. Bush tends to ignore the advice he is given and go with his gut, so be careful when you blame Bush policy on her. Whatever she is, she is certainly not an idiot.
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As a politician she is better than most and as an Adviser, she gave Her Boss good advise, keeps the Boss’s word and ear. Sure the woes or her Boss cannot be metted on her. it is almost like someone trying to blame Chelsea Clinton for her father’s weakness for other women. Only a fool or a moron can think about the words fool or moron when discribing Condi
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I also admire Dr. Rice. My 20 year old (black) daughter is the representative for young republicans in our area and models her ideas after Dr.Rice and my husband and I are both very proud of her. Dr. Rice is not only beautiful but she is strong and intelligent. She realizes she needs to stay one step ahead and think one step further than her white male counterparts and she does so with ease. I’m not sure exactly what she is doing now or plans to do in the near future but I would love to see her name on the presidential ballot during the 2012 election so we can rid ourselves of the foolishness this “joke of a leader” the oprah drones decided to elect during this last election. If we allow this country to continue on in the direction obama is headed we won’t need to help communistic countries escape government persecution, we ourselves will need to be helped. I know I, as well as my family, would be the first ones to volunteer to pound the pavement and do whatever we could do to get her behind the oval office desk. This country is in desperate need of intelligent leadership and I could only pray the idiots of this nation would go home with their little $300.00 stimulus checks and let the true “smart people” take over and return this country to the most wonderful, prosperous country in the world.
We need you Dr. Rice, don’t leave us now.
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nallen,
Thanks for the much deserved accolades you’ve given Dr. Rice. Your analysis of the leadership crisis our country is currently facing is also on point. Hopefully, BOTH parties will elect leaders who are truly interested in promoting the best interests of WE THE PEOPLE (instead of THE GOVERNMENT/MEDIA complex) before we lose ALL of our (economic, political, religious, etc). freedoms.
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@ Abagond
Only time will tell how good Condi Rice was.
And what has time told you, mon cher?
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abagond–
Few blacks are Republicans. She became a Republican in part because she saw how the Democrats refused to let her father vote.
RDKirk–
If this is true, it’s an astoundingly and incredibly huge blind spot in her study of political science. She has got to know that the Democrats who refused to let her father vote–probably the exact same individuals–left the Democratic Party and joined the present Republican Party.
But maybe it’s not so astounding–her knowledge of political currents in the Middle East also seem ill-informed.
There were a dozen “Iraq without Saddam” studies written by Iraq specialists in the Pentagon and the State Department in the late 80 and early 90s. All of them proved to be accurate: What we have seen in Iraq is exactly what they all predicted.
Yet, she seems to have believed along with Paul Wolfowitz that all we needed to do was to remove Hussein and the Iraq would immediately and gladly become a liberal secular democracy. She should have learned in Dictatorship 101 that Saddam could not have had the power he had without having secured the police and military by having people loyal to him in all the positions of power…which in the Middle East means people of his own tribal blood…which means turning coat would be the very last thing they would do.
The Iraq specialists in the Pentagon and the State Department understood that.
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Im not a fan of her politics but she is a sharp lady, thats for sure.
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She is a sharp woman, that’s why I don’t understand why she’s still a Republican. I can’t stomach anything that party does these days. I voted Republican once in my life and was not disappointed, but since then some 15 years ago, the GOP has lost its ragged azz minds and I have lost all respect for them.
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She would be the best pesident we could ever have.The lady has it all from smarts to looks and class.She cares more for this country then most.I hope she lives the rest of her life making herself happy.She has done more for this country then anyone with her intelligents.Imagine where she started and how far she came.God Bless her.
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It would be interesting to do a post on her stance on affirmative action. She also has a famous female lawyer cousin who has done work fighting police corruption in L.A.
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MD
and she speaks fluent russian.
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Her “boosters” have been claiming this since the day she came on the scene yet YOU have never seen or heard her do it?
I call bull sh*t.
If she could do it she would do it.
She can’t.
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@thwack
I do not speak Chinese, French, or Korean just to speak them to native English speakers, so why should you hear her speak Russian? Has she met with any Russian natives on film?
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