Posted on 03/28/2008 2:47:32 PM PDT by F15Eagle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sometimes touted as a contender for the Republican vice-presidential slot, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has aired her thoughts on race in the United States, a prominent issue in the presidential election campaign.
Rice, the top ranking African-American in President George W. Bush's cabinet, told The Washington Times she had watched Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's major speech on race last week.
"I think it was important that he (Obama) gave it for a whole host of reasons," said Rice in a transcript of the interview released by the State Department on Friday.
Obama would be the first black U.S. president if he wins the Democratic nomination and beats Republican candidate John McCain in the November election to succeed Bush.
Obama's speech -- which he gave after a storm of criticism over racially charged sermons by the black pastor of his church -- spoke of a racial stalemate in the United States and a need to heal racial wounds.
While saying repeatedly she did not want to talk about the election campaign -- "I don't do politics" -- and also reiterating her lack of interest in the vice presidential slot, Rice said the United States had a hard time dealing with racial issues.
"There is a paradox for this country and a contradiction of this country and we still haven't resolved it," she said in a detailed reply to questions about Obama and race issues as a whole before next week's 40th anniversary of the slaying of civil rights leader Marin Luther King.
"But what I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them, and that's our legacy."
Rice said her own father, grandmother and great-grandmother had endured "terrible humiliations" growing up in the segregated south and yet they still loved America.
While many blacks called themselves African American, Rice said they should not be looked at as immigrants.
"We don't mimic the immigrant story. Where this conversation has got to go is that black Americans and white Americans founded this country together and I think we've always wanted the same thing," she said.
Later on Friday, when asked what Americans had learned about race since the civil rights movement, Rice told reporters: "You have to work hard every day to make the extraordinary, moving and inspirational words of our founding documents a reality for all Americans."
Earlier this week, Rice addressed a conservative lobbying group in Washington, stoking fresh talk that despite her public protestations to the contrary, she might be interested in becoming McCain's running mate.
Rice told the Washington Times again that she was "not interested" in the vice presidential job and she planned to return to her California home when the Bush administration ends in January 2009.
"It's time for new blood," she said.
(Editing by Frances Kerry)
If it's not Obama/Richardson watch for Obama/Rice
From another thread, same topic. My comments on this...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992969/posts?page=10#10
fyi
These people are living in a time warp that just keeps looping around and around and around.
It’s a black thang. You wouldn’t understand. s/
Excellent ... I got a couple chuckles ... the only thing missing is her total incompetence and ridiculous statements about Israel and the Palis, where she is chummy to the terrorists but snubs Netanyahu.
Of course she likes Obama. They are birds of a feather.
Oh, so THAT’S why she has been giving Israel sh**. It all makes sense now. She’s been drinking the Rev. Wright cool-aid.
No wonder Iran is getting closer to having nukes.
Idiot Rice is an enabler of this.
it’s funny anti-American Reuters ( and in this case the anti_americanism is somewhat understandable coming from the side that lost the Revolution) didn’t pick up the “birth defect” comment Condi put out. (It was posted yesterday from the same Washington Times article, but Search can’t find it for me)
" 'At-a-go" Condi. McCain would be smart to choose her as a running mate.
At least she got in this implicit criticism of the despicable Rev. Wright.
I agree with your take on the Palis vs Israel. This is what first struck me wrong about Condi. She’s such a shallow vessel.
She actually thinks the Palis and Israel are equals in this conflict. Considering her position, that’s a very troubling realization. And knowing her boss seems to agree, it’s frankly chilling.
Powell sacrificed himself on that alter as well. What in blazes is wrong with these folks? All Israel wants to do is survive, and all the Palestinians want to do is destroy it.
Those are the only facts that matter here.
" 'At-a-go" Condi. McCain would be smart to choose her as a running mate.
How could we ever have thought this woman was Presidential? Barf.... she is proving herself nothing but another liberal representing a RINO.
I don't see anything wrong with what she says here.
I don't agree with her on foreign policy, necessarily, she's way too soft on the Pals for my taste.
But she's tough, dignified, and smart. I'm proud she's on our team. I can't imagine her sitting through Wright's sermons for 23 years.
They both want to divide Israel ... of course ... but then who doesn’t these days?
The time is coming ... and all these fruitballs are on board with making an official state of terrorism
Are you sure about that? My take is that she is laying the groundwork to state that Wright is merely the loyal opposition. I don’t see this as a slam at Wright, and the fact that she doesn’t come out and do so in so many words is an amazingly glaring moment in and of itself.
She makes these comments and doesn’t mention the word Wright once. No, she takes on the U.S., from it’s “severely flawed beginning to it’s current severely flawed here and now.”
Why doesn’t she just come out and say that this is the fist moment in her life where she has actually been proud of the United States? That’s what it sounds like to me.
yep - Jews especially should not vote for this man
When does Rice and Obama apologize to the white race for blacks taking them as slaves?
Those seventeen words match my 40+ years of observation.
Not complicated at all.
She always wanted to be the commissioner of the NFL. Good place for her. She can spend her time making excuses for up and coming thugs.
You’ve GOT to be kidding.
She’s picked up the liberal Foggy Bottom flu in a BAD way.
No way Obama would do that, although I could see Condi voting for him.
Thanks
Damn I'm so sick of that!
The title of the article says, “Rice hails Obama race speech as ‘important’ for U.S.” And the quote in the article says, “I think it was important that he (Obama) gave it for a whole host of reasons.” The title does not go with the quote in the article. Maybe Rice used the word “important” again in a different context, but it looks like the author is trying to give a false impression (SHOCKER).
For that matter, how can Obama be such a racist when the one who raised him (i.e. didn't desert him) is from the family he has chosen to trash?
What makes people tick?
Thank you Blam. It really isn’t complicated is it.
At one time, I might have considered supporting Rice for president. Never again.
Tribalism.
If it’s not Obama/Richardson watch for Obama/Rice
never....2 blacks ~ no matter what party is politcal suicide!!!!
The only running mate that McCain should choose, in order to redeem himself, is a Conservative. That would leave Condi out. An uncompromising Conservative would draw in all the Conservatives that McCain has left out in the cold.
ya know - I think you nailed it - makes sense to me now, also. They aren’t interested in truth, it’s about what they ‘think/feel’. Deception!
I guess you didn’t get her memo: “I don’t do politics”
“birds of a feather”
Ding ding ding, we have a winner.
I was hoping she’d mention how the investigation into the passport breach snafu was going...guess not.
Meanwhile Obama attends a church whose guiding doctrine is black liberation theology, a movement founded by James Cone:
Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy." ---James Cone
No-Yes-Yes
I do think Obama's tolerance for racism ala Wright is a disqualifier for high office, Condi comes no where near Obama's failing, though race is clearly an issue for her.
Her comments are the exact opposite of Obama's anti-Americanism.
Rice said her own father, grandmother and great-grandmother had endured "terrible humiliations" growing up in the segregated south and yet they still loved America.
Yeah right, from the same woman who says she “identifies” with the Palestinian people. The same group Obamaramadan just happens to sympathize with.
Evidently she’s moving in that direction, letting it be known she wouldn’t turn down a VP slot. At least that’s the impression from what I’m seeing posted on the forum.
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