Is Condoleezza Rice a disaster as Secretary of State ?

[Digger_Bones]

How do you think she will be remembered in history?

Rice Backs Mideast Moderates, but Offers No Plan
By THOM SHANKER and GREG MYRE
Published: January 14, 2007
JERUSALEM, Jan. 13 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Israeli counterpart declared their mutual backing on Saturday for a bilateral diplomatic strategy that would support moderate political leaders across the Middle East, but after a first evening of talks here offered little new to push ahead any agreement with the Palestinians.

Ms. Rice played down expectations for any breakthrough during her travels.

“I expect this trip to really be one in which we have intensive consultations,” she said to open weeklong travels across the Middle East and the Persian Gulf before consulting with allies in Western Europe. “I’m not coming with a proposal. I’m not coming with a plan.”

The focus of her first two days is to push Israeli and Palestinian leaders to move forward on a number of smaller issues, and then she will speak with other regional allies to try to gather support for President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq.

Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, said after a meeting with Ms. Rice that the two countries were joined in an “ongoing mutual effort to empower the moderates throughout the region in the struggle against extremism and terror.”

Asked to describe whether plans were being drawn to accelerate or skip portions of the long sidelined road map — the 2002 plan backed by the United Nations, Russia, the United States and the European Union that describes sequential measures to be carried out by Israelis and Palestinians to reach a full political settlement — Ms. Livni defended the process as balancing the need to give Palestinians “a political horizon” while cutting “the process into phases.”

Ms. Rice sought to describe signs of optimism, especially after recent contacts between Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, and Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister.

“I think there are openings now that are there as a result of this alignment, there as a result of the obvious desire of Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas to move forward,” she said. “So I think the opening is there, but I can’t really judge until I’ve had a chance to really talk to all the interested parties how we can accelerate the road map, how quickly we can accelerate the road map and how we begin to talk about the political horizon that everybody is interested in.

 

[overthebow]

She is little more than a cheerleader for Bush. It's like she wants to blow him.

I think she should.

 

[KravMaga]

I think she reflects quite appropriately the skill sets of her superiors...incompetence.

 

[Slider69]

I don't know whether it's a matter of competence or not. She's a Cold War Soviet expert, with little chops for the Middle East. She's whip-smart, eloquent, brilliant, but out of her league with a president that, as of right now, is pushing bad policy. Smart people look dumb when they push bad policy.

And, I know this sounds sexist, but a woman will get no respect in the world, especially in the Middle East. We need a man--preferably one who can also speak Arabic--and be the image of strength we need to convey. It's great that Condi plays concert piano and has a great deal of refinement, but we don't need that image.

Is she a disaster? She's an arm of an administration that's a disaster.

 

[RobDownSouth]

I don't know whether it's a matter of competence or not. She's a Cold War Soviet expert, with little chops for the Middle East. She's whip-smart, eloquent, brilliant, but out of her league with a president that, as of right now, is pushing bad policy. Smart people look dumb when they push bad policy.

And, I know this sounds sexist, but a woman will get no respect in the world, especially in the Middle East. We need a man--preferably one who can also speak Arabic--and be the image of strength we need to convey. It's great that Condi plays concert piano and has a great deal of refinement, but we don't need that image.

Is she a disaster? She's an arm of an administration that's a disaster.

Nodding head in agreement...hey waitasec, I'm agreeing with Slider!

Kee-rist, I need a shower now.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Is Condoleezza Rice a disaster as Secretary of State ? Not entirely. I hear she gives a pretty good blow job. But as far as foreign policy is concerned...

 

[Slider69]

Nodding head in agreement...hey waitasec, I'm agreeing with Slider!

Kee-rist, I need a shower now.

LOL!

Hey, I call em like I see em. Grazi.

 

[Paendragon]

I don't know whether it's a matter of competence or not. She's a Cold War Soviet expert, with little chops for the Middle East. She's whip-smart, eloquent, brilliant, but out of her league with a president that, as of right now, is pushing bad policy. Smart people look dumb when they push bad policy.

And, I know this sounds sexist, but a woman will get no respect in the world, especially in the Middle East. We need a man--preferably one who can also speak Arabic--and be the image of strength we need to convey. It's great that Condi plays concert piano and has a great deal of refinement, but we don't need that image.

Is she a disaster? She's an arm of an administration that's a disaster.

Well said.

 

[hurricane64]

I'd tend to agree, and I think it's sad. She really is the shining star of this administration and she ends up looking as bad as the rest of them.

Although, I'd have to say, that lunatic Barbara Boxer probably bit off more than she could chew with her big mouth the other day attacking Condi for being single.

 

[Slider69]

I'd tend to agree, and I think it's sad. She really is the shining star of this administration and she ends up looking as bad as the rest of them.

Although, I'd have to say, that lunatic Barbara Boxer probably bit off more than she could chew with her big mouth the other day attacking Condi for being single.

Boxer is an embarrassment to the human species and to anyone who votes that bitch in time after time. She has NO business being anything but a waitress in a bad diner.

JMHO.

Condi wiped the floor with her, which is what I would expect. But the drama took away from more substantive questions that should have been asked. Boxer screwed up, the Democrats shoudn't send a mouth breather to do their dirty work.

People still want to flame Newt Gingrich, but he remains one of the few people who has a reasonable grasp on this Iraq thing and his ideas have gone ignored in the consciousness of the media and the administration. Condi's just a pawn in the game.

 

[hurricane64]

Boxer is an embarrassment to the human species and to anyone who votes that bitch in time after time. She has NO business being anything but a waitress in a bad diner.

JMHO.

Condi wiped the floor with her, which is what I would expect. But the drama took away from more substantive questions that should have been asked. Boxer screwed up, the Democrats shoudn't send a mouth breather to do their dirty work.

People still want to flame Newt Gingrich, but he remains one of the few people who has a reasonable grasp on this Iraq thing and his ideas have gone ignored in the consciousness of the media and the administration. Condi's just a pawn in the game.

Agreed on Newt.

He'll be pitching his hat into the Presidential ring after everybody's beaten each other up in the early stages. And I think that's a good thing.

 

[Slider69]

Agreed on Newt.

He'll be pitching his hat into the Presidential ring after everybody's beaten each other up in the early stages. And I think that's a good thing.

I don't think he's electable, to be honest. But he would make a great cabinet guy, as far as I'm concerned.

Newt notwithstanding, I wonder why more people like him and other commentators have been ignored in the media with regard to Iraq. It's beyond disturbing to see talking heads have no respect for, understanding or comprehension of, or analysis pertaining to history.

That's also why Condi should be more assertive---she understands that, or at least has the capacity to understand it.

 

[squarespray]

I equate Condi's personna with-that-of Barbara Jordan, from the Watergate-hearings... Tough, smart, no-nonsense...