Condoleezza Rice, prepares to address the audience at the Reagan Library on Tuesday in Simi Valley. The Republican Party can thrive only if it stops requiring a “litmus test” to be a Republican, she said.

The "we" there meant whom exactly?

Condi has said she doesn't want the press and the media to be silent and supportive of Obama. Condi said she regrets the demise of the independence and depth of analysis of newspapers. That'll be our cue to speak out then.

After all, if this group owed Obama our silence and support then we would call ourselves a "re-elect Obama 2012" group (we don't, we won't )

The Invisible Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton's Failure of Leadership on the World Stage

by Nile Gardiner, Ph.D.

WebMemo #2548

From: Peter Dow <peterdow@...>
Subject: [rice-for-president] Condoleezza Rice gives GOP advice at Reagan Library.
To: "Rice for President" <rice-for-president@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 15 July, 2009, 11:59 PM

 

Ventura County Star   http://www.venturac ountystar. com/news/ 2009/jul/ 15/condoleezza- rice-gives- gop-advice- at-reagan Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the Republican Party will thrive only if it stops requiring a “litmus test” on being a Republican.   Condoleezza Rice, prepares to address the audience at the Reagan Library on Tuesday in Simi Valley. The Republican Party can thrive only if it stops requiring a “litmus test” to be a Republican, she said.   Rice spoke about the importance of democracy and the ability to think outside of one’s own political party ideals during her sold-out appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.   More than 1,000 people attended Rice’s speech as part of the Perspectives on Leadership Forum.   The Birmingham, Ala., native served as secretary of state from 2005 to 2009. She was also President George W. Bush’s national security adviser.   Rice has made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people four times, and was ranked twice as the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.     During a question-and- answer period after her speech, an audience member asked Rice her feelings about former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, and his support of President Barack Obama.   Rice said Powell, who she considers a good friend, “believes in democracy and fought for it.”   Rice said it’s important in a democracy that “we get to make choices and we don’t have to shed our political affiliation over those choices.”   She added that the Republican Party will thrive only if “we broaden our horizons and by not having a litmus test for being a Republican.”   But Rice, who was once a Democrat but changed political affiliations, said she personally took an oath not to comment on the Obama administration, saying “we owe them our silence and support.”   Rice’s speech focused on the importance of democracy, especially in the Middle East, a subject she focused on while secretary of state.   She said Iran’s disputed June 12 election was “a fake election,” and the government “has lost any sense of legitimacy with its own people,” many under the age of the 35. “The Iranian regime is done,” Rice said.   Rice also said democracy’s continuance depends on the media, especially newspapers because they allow analysis beyond 30-second news bites on cable television.   “I think (the demise of newspapers) is a really damaging turn of events,” Rice said.   Rice, who is a professor of political science at Stanford University, said it’s important to encourage music and arts in schools, saying that those subjects are an essential part of cognitive development in children.   At one time, Rice was training to be a concert pianist, but said “she was pretty good, but not great” and that she would have ended up “playing at Nordstrom’s and not Carnegie Hall.”   Rice said she grew up in the segregated South, where her late father, John W. Rice, couldn’t vote. She said she now appreciates living in the United States, where she was able to become the first black secretary of state and be in a country where there is now a black president.   She said people from around the world have told her how they view the United States.   “Our national myth is the log cabin. You can come from humble circumstances and do great things,” Rice said.

From: Peter Dow <peterdow@...>
Subject: [rice-for-president] Condi 2005 VS Hillary 2009. [Re: Condoleezza Rice gives GOP advice at Reagan Library.]
To: rice-for-president@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, 18 July, 2009, 3:46 AM

 

Well when Condi said at the Reagan Library that she personally took an oath not to comment on the Obama administration, saying “we owe them our silence and support.”   The "we" there meant whom exactly?   Condi and former President Bush perhaps, because they both have the ear of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton to give advice when required, might be a fair assumption.   Former Vice President Cheney has not been silent but then maybe Obama is not listening to Cheney's private advice?   Condi can't mean Congress because what is the point of having a Congress if it is silent and supports the president 100% all the time and just rubber-stamps the president's wishes?   Condi has said she doesn't want the press and the media to be silent and supportive of Obama. Condi said she regrets the demise of the independence and depth of analysis of newspapers. That'll be our cue to speak out then.   Well Rice for President Yahoo Group dares to go beyond the 30 second sound bite and the red carpet photographs (though we do those too if it is Condi's sound bite or photograph).   After all, if this group owed Obama our silence and support then we would call ourselves a "re-elect Obama 2012" group (we don't, we won't )   So in the spirit of supporting in-depth analysis and criticism, here is an article I surfed across today which is not silent and which is not 100% supportive of the Obama administration and I found it an interesting read because I really would like to see an Condi VS Hillary debate sometime.   - Peter Dow, Group Owner, Rice for President Yahoo Group     The Invisible Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton's Failure of Leadership on the World Stage by Nile Gardiner, Ph.D. WebMemo #2548 http://www.heritage .org/Research/ WorldwideFreedom /wm2548.cfm As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has been almost as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel. Her profile on the world stage has been significantly lower than that of her immediate predecessors, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, who were highly prominent figures in their first six months in office. In marked contrast, Clinton has struggled to make her mark as an international leader and has on several occasions been embarrassingly overshadowed by Vice President Joe Biden on foreign affairs issues ranging from Israel to Iraq. She has also been marginalized by the White House's appointment of a series of special envoys and special representatives on issues such as the Middle East peace process, Sudan, and Afghanistan/ Pakistan.   Clinton's low-key and at times overly cautious approach is symbolic of the Obama Administration' s floundering foreign policy--one significantly lacking in coherence and direction. Her underwhelming address to the Council on Foreign Relations[1] in Washington this week merely reinforced the image of a confused foreign policy and an American leadership hugely uncomfortable with the idea of a United States as the world's only superpower.   Lacking in strength and vision, and extraordinarily naïve for a post-9/11 world, Clinton's see-no-evil- hear-no-evil speech was one of the weakest delivered by a secretary of state in modern times. It was a speech that could easily have been written by a bureaucrat sitting in Brussels or Turtle Bay, surveying an imaginary world where the United States is merely one of several equal players rather than the most powerful nation on the face of the earth.   Clinton's Council on Foreign Relations Speech Despite being her most important speech so far as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton's July 15 address to the Council on Foreign Relations failed to make an impact. It was more a damp squib rather than a powerful policy statement--largely a tired retread of the failing foreign policy doctrine of "smart power" instead of a clear-headed assessment of major foreign policy challenges.   Clinton's speech was full of grand references to "creative partnerships for development, " a "multi-partner world," and a new "architecture of global cooperation" but remarkably short on clear policy prescriptions. Strikingly, the United States' most important international partnership, the Anglo-American Special Relationship, was not even mentioned.   Clinton's speech was also distinctly lacking in any serious assessment of the huge threats faced by the United States from an array of state and non-state actors alike, including rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea as well as a global network of Islamist terrorists. There was no sense at all that the U.S. was engaged in a global war against an enemy seeking America's destruction or that Washington was faced with an array of adversaries seeking to dominate Asia and the Middle East through nuclear might.   Missile defense, a vital component of any preparation against future attack by Iran or North Korea, did not even merit a mention, nor did the sacrifice and service of hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women bravely defending the free world. Finally, the secretary of state spent little time discussing the importance of human rights and barely mentioned the concept of freedom--a significant exclusion.   Given the number of critical issues garnering little or no mention, it is clear that the CFR speech was a hugely idealistic exercise in wishful thinking at a time when the world has never been more dangerous.   A Flawed Strategy of Engagement The naïve principle of "engagement" lay at the very heart of Clinton's CFR speech. The rising threat from Pyongyang barely merited discussion in Clinton's analysis, except for a rather optimistic boast about "two unanimous Security Council resolutions with real teeth and consequences for North Korea." The secretary of state pointedly avoided any direct criticism of Kim Jong-Il and his tyrannical regime and made no reference at all to the fact that North Korea had recently fired a range of ballistic missiles and even tested a nuclear bomb. The mass starvation of millions of North Koreans by the regime in Pyongyang was also conveniently swept under the carpet, as was continuing human rights violations by China and Russia.   Nor did Clinton directly condemn Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by name, or any other of the country's Islamist rulers, for the brutal murder and suppression of protestors on the streets of Tehran following last month's rigged elections. While conceding that she was "appalled by the manner in which the government used violence to quell the voices of the Iranian people," Clinton made it clear she remained firmly committed to direct talks with Tehran over Iran's nuclear ambitions and emphasized "the importance of offering to engage Iran and giving its leaders a clear choice." There was no reference to what measures the United States and its allies should take against Iran if it failed to halt its uranium enrichment program, thereby neutering any threats of further economic and political sanctions--let alone the potential use of military power.   In contrast to her tough rhetoric on the Iranian nuclear issue when she campaigned for the presidency, Hillary Clinton has adopted a remarkably dove-like tone while in office, extending the hand of friendship to a brutal dictatorship elected through ballot rigging and intimidation. Like President Obama, the secretary of state remained largely silent during the immediate aftermath of the Iranian elections and, in an effort to not offend the Iranian leadership, completely avoided referring to the re-election of Ahmadinejad as fraudulent. This was a cowardly approach, one that significantly undercut America's image as a great nation that will always stand up for the cause of liberty and freedom in the face of tyranny.   The Obama Administration has made a greater effort than any U.S. Administration in history to extend the hand of friendship to unsavory regimes. There is barely a tyranny on the face of the earth that has not been earmarked for "engagement, " from Tehran to Caracas to Khartoum. The Obama/Clinton doctrine is increasingly defined by a refusal on the part of the Administration to take an aggressive stand against despotism and by the relegation of human rights concerns to the bottom of the well of foreign policy issues.   Obama/Clinton Doctrine: Fraught with Peril There are many dangers inherent in this strategy, including lending the veneer of respectability to dictatorships that crave international acceptance when none is merited. Such an approach will swiftly undermine the activities of opposition movements and non-governmental organizations operating in repressive societies--organiza tions that rely upon the isolation of their governments within the international community to seek democratic reforms and political change.   This doctrine also buys valuable time for regimes such as Iran to advance their nuclear programs and erodes international pressure to strengthen sanctions. By adopting the European Union's policy of "constructive engagement" with Tehran, the United States has given Ahmadinejad a new lease on life, with the Iranian tyrant acting in an increasingly aggressive and assertive fashion, with the knowledge that the U.S. is now highly unlikely to use force against his nuclear facilities.   A Dazed and Confused Foreign Policy Clinton's underwhelming performance so far as secretary of state is representative of a U.S. foreign policy that projects weakness rather than strength and is leaving the United States increasingly vulnerable in the face of an array of enemies. She has sorely disappointed those who argued that she would toughen the President's position on key international issues, especially the Iranian nuclear threat.   The brutal reality is that rather than strengthening Washington internationally, the much-hyped Obama/Clinton doctrine of "smart power" is an empty shell that masks a strategy for America's decline as a world power. The long-term strength and security of the United States depends ultimately upon strong defenses, including the launch of a global missile defense system as well as the advancement of economic and political freedom across the globe.   America's position as a superpower is being weakened by President Obama and Secretary Clinton's failure to stand up to tyranny, and their rash embrace of odious dictators will ultimately tarnish America's image. An Administration that chooses to appease evil rather than confront it will ultimately decline in credibility both at home and abroad, in turn leaving the homeland more vulnerable to attack.   Not a Popularity Contest World leadership is not a popularity contest. Rather, it is about making tough decisions and adopting positions that will be met with hostility in many parts of the globe. It is about the assertive projection of American power, both to secure the United States and to protect the free world. Such leadership is often a lonely and unenviable task that at times will require the use of maximum force against America's enemies.   The United States needs stronger leadership on the world stage from both the White House and the State Department, including a tougher stance toward America's foes from a secretary of state whose voice is unusually meek and silent. This is a time for America to project its might and confront its adversaries- -not to retreat behind a failed strategy of "engagement. "   Nile Gardiner Ph.D., is the Director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation. Erica Munkwitz assisted with research for this paper.         --- On Wed, 15/7/09, Peter Dow <peterdow@talk21. com> wrote: From: Peter Dow <peterdow@talk21. com> Subject: [rice-for-president ] Condoleezza Rice gives GOP advice at Reagan Library. To: "Rice for President" <rice-for-president@ yahoogroups. com> Date: Wednesday, 15 July, 2009, 11:59 PM   Ventura County Star   http://www.venturac ountystar. com/news/ 2009/jul/ 15/condoleezza- rice-gives- gop-advice- at-reagan Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the Republican Party will thrive only if it stops requiring a “litmus test” on being a Republican.   Condoleezza Rice, prepares to address the audience at the Reagan Library on Tuesday in Simi Valley. The Republican Party can thrive only if it stops requiring a “litmus test” to be a Republican, she said.   Rice spoke about the importance of democracy and the ability to think outside of one’s own political party ideals during her sold-out appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.   More than 1,000 people attended Rice’s speech as part of the Perspectives on Leadership Forum.   The Birmingham, Ala., native served as secretary of state from 2005 to 2009. She was also President George W. Bush’s national security adviser.   Rice has made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people four times, and was ranked twice as the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.     During a question-and- answer period after her speech, an audience member asked Rice her feelings about former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, and his support of President Barack Obama.   Rice said Powell, who she considers a good friend, “believes in democracy and fought for it.”   Rice said it’s important in a democracy that “we get to make choices and we don’t have to shed our political affiliation over those choices.”   She added that the Republican Party will thrive only if “we broaden our horizons and by not having a litmus test for being a Republican.”   But Rice, who was once a Democrat but changed political affiliations, said she personally took an oath not to comment on the Obama administration, saying “we owe them our silence and support.”   Rice’s speech focused on the importance of democracy, especially in the Middle East, a subject she focused on while secretary of state.   She said Iran’s disputed June 12 election was “a fake election,” and the government “has lost any sense of legitimacy with its own people,” many under the age of the 35. “The Iranian regime is done,” Rice said.   Rice also said democracy’s continuance depends on the media, especially newspapers because they allow analysis beyond 30-second news bites on cable television.   “I think (the demise of newspapers) is a really damaging turn of events,” Rice said.   Rice, who is a professor of political science at Stanford University, said it’s important to encourage music and arts in schools, saying that those subjects are an essential part of cognitive development in children.   At one time, Rice was training to be a concert pianist, but said “she was pretty good, but not great” and that she would have ended up “playing at Nordstrom’s and not Carnegie Hall.”   Rice said she grew up in the segregated South, where her late father, John W. Rice, couldn’t vote. She said she now appreciates living in the United States, where she was able to become the first black secretary of state and be in a country where there is now a black president.   She said people from around the world have told her how they view the United States.   “Our national myth is the log cabin. You can come from humble circumstances and do great things,” Rice said.

Plus - A bonus video!

From: Peter Dow <peterdow@...>
Subject: [rice-for-president] Condoleezza Rice gives GOP advice at Reagan Library.
To: "Rice for President" <rice-for-president@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 15 July, 2009, 11:59 PM

 

Ventura County Star   http://www.venturac ountystar. com/news/ 2009/jul/ 15/condoleezza- rice-gives- gop-advice- at-reagan Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the Republican Party will thrive only if it stops requiring a “litmus test” on being a Republican.   Condoleezza Rice, prepares to address the audience at the Reagan Library on Tuesday in Simi Valley. The Republican Party can thrive only if it stops requiring a “litmus test” to be a Republican, she said.   Rice spoke about the importance of democracy and the ability to think outside of one’s own political party ideals during her sold-out appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.   More than 1,000 people attended Rice’s speech as part of the Perspectives on Leadership Forum.   The Birmingham, Ala., native served as secretary of state from 2005 to 2009. She was also President George W. Bush’s national security adviser.   Rice has made Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people four times, and was ranked twice as the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.     During a question-and- answer period after her speech, an audience member asked Rice her feelings about former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, and his support of President Barack Obama.   Rice said Powell, who she considers a good friend, “believes in democracy and fought for it.”   Rice said it’s important in a democracy that “we get to make choices and we don’t have to shed our political affiliation over those choices.”   She added that the Republican Party will thrive only if “we broaden our horizons and by not having a litmus test for being a Republican.”   But Rice, who was once a Democrat but changed political affiliations, said she personally took an oath not to comment on the Obama administration, saying “we owe them our silence and support.”   Rice’s speech focused on the importance of democracy, especially in the Middle East, a subject she focused on while secretary of state.   She said Iran’s disputed June 12 election was “a fake election,” and the government “has lost any sense of legitimacy with its own people,” many under the age of the 35. “The Iranian regime is done,” Rice said..   Rice also said democracy’s continuance depends on the media, especially newspapers because they allow analysis beyond 30-second news bites on cable television.   “I think (the demise of newspapers) is a really damaging turn of events,” Rice said.   Rice, who is a professor of political science at Stanford University, said it’s important to encourage music and arts in schools, saying that those subjects are an essential part of cognitive development in children.   At one time, Rice was training to be a concert pianist, but said “she was pretty good, but not great” and that she would have ended up “playing at Nordstrom’s and not Carnegie Hall.”   Rice said she grew up in the segregated South, where her late father, John W. Rice, couldn’t vote. She said she now appreciates living in the United States, where she was able to become the first black secretary of state and be in a country where there is now a black president.   She said people from around the world have told her how they view the United States.   “Our national myth is the log cabin. You can come from humble circumstances and do great things,” Rice said.

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    rice-for-president-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

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Rice Sounds Off on Protectionism, Quality of US Education

http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=44884

 

The Memphis News

Condoleezza Rice

On the economy:

On American achievement:

On American education:

This story appeared on Network World at
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/091809-condoleezza-rice-stumps-for-capitalism.html

 

Condoleezza Rice stumps for capitalism at SAP event

The former US official faced down hecklers to give a speech on the effects of the financial crisis

By James Niccolai , IDG News Service , 09/18/2009

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at an SAP event Thursday, defended American-style capitalism against charges that it led to the global economic meltdown.

 

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

Condi: The should-be face of the GOP

She's smart. She's experienced. She's worldly. Republican strategists worried about their party's future should take heed.

WASHINGTON (Fortune) -- Successful candidates follow a simple fundamental rule: Define yourself before your opponent can define you. The Republican Party, which mustered a thumbs-up from only 38% of voters in last week's Bloomberg poll, sorely needs to brush up on the very rule it counsels in candidate-training sessions.

 

To skeptics in search of a political home, the GOP's image has devolved into that of a minority collection of name-calling, "no"-saying, backward-looking, talk-show bullying cranks -- a definition gleefully perpetuated by Democratic pols. So next time the eloquent and elegant figure of Condoleezza Rice strides onto a stage, GOP strategists worried about their party's future should pull out their notebooks.

 

I interviewed Rice onstage last week on the closing day of Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit, where she achieved a star-turn -- and did so while mounting a vigorous defense of former President Bush's oft-vilified foreign policy, and delivering a pointed critique of President Obama and congressional Democrats.

 

After praising President Obama and his team as "patriots who are going to try to do what's best for the country," she nevertheless warned about letting down our guard against another terrorist attack. "I am grateful -- I don't say proud, just 'grateful' -- that there wasn't another attack over the past eight years," she said. "But every day terrorists plot and plan to try to attack us. They only have to be right once. We have to be right 100% of the time. But I know, too, that can only happen because men and women in uniform are fighting on the front lines."

 

She offered sharp words for Democrats in Congress who want President Obama to begin making plans to pull out of Afghanistan, a war that is becoming increasingly unpopular with the American public.

 

"The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan," she said, "that territory became the very territory on which Al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th. So our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists.

"It's that simple," she declared, "if you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan."

 

Rice acknowledged flaws in Afghanistan's recent elections but quickly inserted an addendum bolstered by her personal credentials: "Our democracy wasn't so perfect at the beginning either. My ancestors were three-fifths of a man. My father tried to vote in 1952. You couldn't guarantee voting rights for blacks in the South until 1965 with the Voting Rights Act. So don't tell me these people can't get it right because their democracies are struggling."

 

That said, Rice stressed the importance of setting "goals" in Afghanistan and bringing civilians in alongside troops -- as both administrations have done -- to pursue reconstruction and development in local communities. That strategy was late in coming to Iraq, she conceded.

 

On Iran, Rice tactfully questioned the Obama strategy of engaging the Tehran regime in direct talks about its nuclear program. "I don't have any problems with engaging bad guys. We did our share of it," she recalled. "The problem is that engagement is a tactic not a strategy. You have to ask yourself what the end is. When you go into the room with an adversary, you had better have sticks in your bag as well as carrots."

 

Obama officials, she warned, will be speaking to leaders not likely to survive the current internal political turmoil. "The Iranian regime is vulnerable right now," she declared, "I don't know whether it's a year from now or five years from now, but that regime is done. It has split the clerics...It has made [the brutal post-election crackdown] the formative political memory" of young people, who make up 70% of the population, she added.

 

Rice is mostly known as George W. Bush's Secretary of State. But she is also a concert pianist who once dueled with Yo-Yo Ma and played solo for the Queen of England; a Russian scholar and football fanatic who once listed NFL commissioner as her dream job; a black woman who grew up in the segregated South and is now something of a rock star among the 'tween girl set. (She plans to edit a version of her book about her parents for young girls.)

 

In other words, her appeal is broad. Onstage, Rice sounds alarms about the threat of terrorism while still sounding reasonable. She offers compassion for women in oppressive societies while hard-headedly tying their plight to America's national security. "I think that societies that treat women badly are dangerous societies," she insists.

 

Rice is not the only woman counter-acting the GOP's narrow image these days. All the unflattering attention paid to Sarah Palin has overshadowed the likes of former eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) chief Meg Whitman running for governor of California, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe gamely trying to broker a health care deal in Congress, and that other Cheney -- Liz -- relentlessly making the case for a vigorous "war on terror" to TV and radio audiences.

 

Rice quashed rumors of a 2008 presidential run and who knows whether she'll reconsider after she decides to move on from grading papers at Stanford. As Bush's national security adviser at the launch of the Iraq War, she will never appeal to hardcore Democrats. But to those millions of independents and soft Republicans who pulled Obama over the top in last year's election -- a familiar brand of voter at this Fortune gathering -- Rice has allure.

 

At the end of our interview, as I stood to shake Rice's hand, I glanced over my shoulder at this audience of women-CEO's and senior business and government leaders, media opinion-makers and entertainment stars, ground-breaking academics and committed philanthropists. It was an audience I knew, first-hand, viewed the Bush administration with doubts and, in some cases, outright hostility. So what I saw was telling.

 

Every single woman in that San Diego hotel ballroom was on her feet-giving Condi Rice a standing ovation. 

 

First Published: September 22, 2009: 9:17 AM ET

---

 

New Rice for President Yahoo Group links -

 

 

Fortune. VIDEO "Condi's Fortune. 1) Family autobiographies. Women's empowerment fights terror." (YouTube)
Fortune. The most powerful women. Condoleezza Rice interviewed by Nina Easton, Washington Editor of Fortune. Condoleezza Rice speaks about - the autobiographical books she is writing. The first book about her parents and the educational opportunities and inspiration they provided. The second book a "tweens" edition of her family story. - the importance for countries abroad (such as the Middle East) of educating girls and empowering women, the benefits for prosperity and for fighting terror.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMmWQmV-i1g

 

Fortune. VIDEO "Condi's Fortune. 2) Afghanistan patience, Russia authoritarian, China pressures, Iran sticks." (YouTube)
Fortune. The most powerful women. Condoleezza Rice interviewed by Nina Easton, Washington Editor of Fortune. Condoleezza Rice speaks about - Afghanistan. Patience required. ".. so our national security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists. It's that simple. If you want another terrorist attack on the United States - abandon Afghanistan." - Russia. Russia inc. authoritarian. - China pressures. - Iran - needs sticks as well as carrots. Tough policy required.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS9J-acCaK8

 

 

Link to this video on Fortune website - http://money.cnn.com/video/fortune/2009/09/17/f_mpw_rice_iran.fortune

 

 

 

Rice for President Yahoo Group

 

"Condoleezza Rice for President in 2012. Join this group of supporters from everywhere on the world wide web."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rice-for-president/

 

 

Rice urges patience on Afghan war

By MIKE TOLSON Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said staying the course in Afghanistan is vital for United States security interests and urged those critical of progress there to be patient with the tentative efforts of a fledgling democracy.

Speaking on Wednesday to a Houston luncheon banquet sponsored by the World Affairs Council, Rice touched on her own experience growing up in the Jim Crow South and living through the tumultuous civil rights era to point out how long the world's greatest democracy required to work out its own imperfections.

“This is a real change for Afghanistan,” said Rice, who returned to Stanford University to teach after ending her term as the nation's top diplomatic officer. “Who are we to be so impatient … as these people try to find their way? The main thing is to stay connected to Afghanistan. It will take a long time.”

While President Barack Obama wrestles with the thorny decisions of how and whether to commit additional troops and what their precise mission would be if committed, Rice said the U.S. should learn from its mistakes.

We failed to show sufficient interest in Afghanistan after the U.S.-supported insurrection drove out Russian invaders in 1989, and we tried to punish Pakistan too severely for a coup prompted in some measure by the instability that followed, she said.

Rice said world leaders must take a hard line with Iran concerning its nuclear ambitions, which she said are clearly aimed developing the means to produce weapons. But she also predicted that the current leadership of Iran ultimately will fall because of its repressive reaction to demonstrations that followed a controversial national election this summer. Young Iranians will not forget the fraudulent election and brutal crackdown on subsequent protests in the streets of Tehran, Rice said.

“Iran is weaker than it has been,” she said. “Its economy is in shambles. The clerics are at each others' throats. Whether it's three years or five, that administration is done. It lost any legitimacy it might have had.”

Rice said the global economic crisis will have profound diplomatic and political consequences. Some are welcome, such as the crimp in oil revenue going to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Others are cause for concern. The crisis, for example, could affect the economic progress of Eastern European nations. It also has caused unrest among people in China who are without jobs, which she said eventually will force changes in the structure of Chinese government.

Rice said the modern geopolitical landscape is one in which the biggest threats to our safety and national security come not from large countries, as was the case throughout the 20th century, but from smaller, struggling countries, which could include portions of Mexico.

“The dangers to us come … from failed or failing states,” she said. “What we learned on Sept. 11 was that the threat came from Afghanistan, a failed state. These are the kind of threats … that we have to be attuned to.”

She encouraged Americans who feel nervous or overwhelmed by current world events to keep things in perspective. She recalled the state of the world in 1950, when the Soviet Union controlled all of Eastern Europe and had emerged as a nuclear power. Communists had triumphed in China and were winning many votes in Western European elections. A war in Korea had broken out.

“If you think optimism doesn't fit the times,” Rice said, “think of things that we once thought impossible and that we now view as inevitable. If you told anyone in 1950 that the hammer-and-sickle would come down from over the Kremlin for the last time, they would have said you should be locked up.”

Listen up Condi and Condistas out there - the Queen is not as harmless as she seems.  It is not nice to be ruled, as we Britons are, by someone like Elizabeth Windsor with as much brains as her lap dogs. I don't want to fight or to die for Queen and Corgi and neither should any Briton be asked to. 

Now if Condi was Queen Condoleezza  and Buckingham Palace was her residence that would be different and better maybe but we ought to assert democratic republican principles always.

Attention Americans! Who are your true friends? Not the Windsors!
http://scot.extroverthost.com/objection.htm

Condoleezza Rice: U.S. must stay the course in Afghanistan

07:02 AM CDT on Friday, October 23, 2009

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States should stay the course in Afghanistan or risk putting America in harm's way.

 

 

"We ignore the failed states at our own peril," she told about 1,200 people gathered Thursday evening at the Majestic Theatre. "We've got to find a way to see it through."

 

Rice was in Dallas for a Brinker International Forum lecture, the first since the death of businessman Norman Brinker last summer.

Her speech focused on America's protecting itself and promoting democracy and its leadership abroad.

 

"We have to advocate for a better life for people and a democratic life for people," she said.

 

Rice said the nation should focus on stabilizing countries that are struggling because they pose the greatest risk to security.

She used Afghanistan and the drug problems in Mexico as examples.

 

President Barack Obama is considering sending more troops to fight the war in Afghanistan, now one of the longest in U.S. history.

 

Rice said democracy takes time, as it did with the United States.

The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. A few decades later, she was the first African-American woman to serve as secretary of state.

 

"Yes, we've got to get Afghanistan right," she said. "We're going to have to do it with a sense of patience and a sense of urgency."

 

Rice also praised America for what she called "our national myth."

"It doesn't matter where you came from, it's where you're going," she said.

 

She urged the audience to embrace those who want to come to this country.

"Without them, we will become as stagnant as all those countries where immigrants choose not to go," she said.

 

Rice served as a secretary of state and national security adviser under George W. Bush. She also served as a Soviet Union specialist to President George H.W. Bush.

 

She defended George W. Bush and his foreign policy.

"Today's headlines and history's judgments are rarely the same," she said.

 

Rice is now a professor of political science at Stanford University.

"Life is indeed very different," she said. "I can get up in the morning, read the newspaper and I don't have to do anything about what's in it."

 

 

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Condoleezza Rice speaks of humble beginnings to a packed ballroom

Well Wikipedia has Condi's birthday as November 14, 1954.

From: Peter Dow <peterdow@...>
Subject: [rice-for-president] Condoleezza Rice for President OF THE EUROPEAN UNION!
To: "Rice for President" <rice-for-president@yahoogroups.com>,
Date: Saturday, 31 October, 2009, 4:46

 

BBC: German party cool on Blair for EU http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/world/ europe/8329554. stm   Condoleezza Rice for President of the European Union. Condoleezza Rice, the former US Secretary of State under President Bush would have made a great president of the USA and still may do, perhaps if she runs in 2012 but until then we Europeans should give Condi a wee shot of being President of Europe. If she is elected US president, she can decide if she wants to be president of both the EU and the USA or just the USA.   Condi doesn't have a wooden heart (YouTube) http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=cFDfDEa0kJM     Condoleezza Rice with senior European Union leaders. German Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the capacity of the EU Presidency, EU foreign policy supreme Javier Solana (R) and EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner   German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Condoleezza Rice about to kiss, well cheek to cheek anyway.   France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) escorts U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after their meeting about the Russia-Georgia conflict at the Fort de Bregancon residence in Bormes-les Mimosas on the French Riviera August 14, 2008.   British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (R) and Foreign Secretary David Miliband (L) meet with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice inside 10 Downing Street in central London, on February 6, 2008.   US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is greeted by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who co-chairs the 2008 WEF edition during the World Economic Forum opening session 23 January 2008.   Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, meets with Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini, Tuesday, July 29, 2008, at the State Department in Washington.   Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, left, shakes hands with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, right, in the presence of Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, center, after a meeting at the Moncloa Palace, in Madrid, Spain, Friday, June 1, 2007.   International Conference on Iraq - 22 June 2005 - Brussels. Condoleezza Rice and Jean Asselborn, Minister for Foreign Affairs       Rice for President Yahoo Group   "Condoleezza Rice for President in 2012. Join this group of supporters from everywhere on the world wide web." http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/rice- for-president/