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Let’s see. She’s a 2nd-amendment absolutist (unlike McCain, who tried to gut the 1st amendment with Feingold), who’s sharp as a tack, and has that most overwhelming job qualification — like Sulla, she don’t want the job.

I mean, I have wanted to rid my party of the public perception that we are a bunch of David Duke, sexist good ol’ boys that the media has protrayed us to be by cooperating with lib propaganda machine.

Puhhhlease…Repubs certainly aren’t David Duke, sexist good ol’ boys, but they also are certainly not an inclusive party. And I’d be curious to find out how many black women voted for George Bush in 2000 and 2004.

And please, while you’re here back off the whole “media as a tool of the left-wing” meme. It’s demonstrated time and time again that we see bias simply from the perspective we’re at. Right-wingers see left wing bias and left-wingers see right wing bias. In short, it’s not a good reason for why Condi should be President or VP.

But to all of the rest, thanks for your comments. This gives me more on an idea of why you like here, and I appreciate the links. Frankly, I don’t know if she’s a good Secretary of State or not, because a) it’s too soon to tell (only a year), and b) she’s in a particularly ideological White House which may prevent her from doing some things she wants to do.

Although I will say that I like her new ideas about putting diplomats in more countries to spread the word about Democracy. Thumbs up on that.

I’d rather go with Ken Blackwell of Ohio as the ‘08 nominee, from what I’ve heard of him so far. A small government Reaganite conservative (remember those?) that works well with both parties in his home state, he is untainted by Washington.

Put him in the driver’s seat, and have Rice on board for her foreign policy experience as Veep, if she wants to be on the ticket. I think a Blackwell/Rice ticket would be good for this country, and don’t think that whoever the DNC would put up against them really even matters.

We know that the majority of American voters are uninformed, and they vote republican because they’re Daddy always did, or they vote Democrat because their union leaders tell them they have to. There are many people, now, who feel that America is ready for a woman president. Qualification won’t matter much to them. Hell, they’d vote for Helen Thomas or Ann Coulter. That block of people appears to grow every year.

If the Dems run Hillary in 08 *cringe*, the Reps won’t stand much of a chance if they run another white guy. By running a woman against Hillary, they force that block of voters mentioned above to decide between 1 of 2 women. With that factor eliminated, it becomes just another election. Oh, and by the way, here’s a chance to have a black President, too.

If, the Dems pick someone other than Hillary, than Condi’s name will be dropped into the textbooks as a “pretty good Secretary of State”.

I know Condi gets compared to Hillary, but there’s an important difference between them. Hillary wants to rule, and has used an iron fist in the past. Condi, as far as I can tell, would be satisfied to simply serve.

The sad truth is that both major parties are really weak, mostly due to various self-inflicted wounds. I regard Rice in much the same way as Hilary Clinton: She clearly has her faults, but at this point she’s still preferable to any of the others in her party whose names are being bandied about as presidential candidates.

http://globalization.about.com/od/usforeignpolicy/a/ricediplospeech.htm (Her speech where she outlines her plan for reform at the State department.

I have a feeling many people who dislike Condi just remember her four years as NSA and haven’t really paid attention to her performance as Secretary of State. Yes her performance as NSA was lackluster but for whatever reason, she has been a good if not great Secretary of State so far. In fact if you read liberal to centrist democratic blogs like democracyarsenal or liberals against terrorism, they have praised many of her actions as Secretary of State.

I think the main reason is that she has synergized the neocon belief of the necessity of democratic reform in the Middle East with her traditional realist upbringing, and has forged a policy that seeks the same reform, but through more traditional means such as using diplomacy and international institutions, rather than the unilateral militarisim of the first four years of the administration. Because of this, our foreign policy, of which Condi now is in almost complete control of, is far more realistic and sensible than the previous four years.

However, while it’s realistic, it also consists more of humanitarian liberalism that prizes freedom and human rights over stability, and not the cold isolationism of her Republican predecessors, who valued stable dictators over unstable democratic movements. Witness our recent blocking of trade talks with Egypt until they release a political reformer who has been wrongfully imprisoned. Condi, more than the President even, has been at the forefront of pushing more for the importance of human rights in our foreign policy. For example, she was the one that wanted investigations into abuses in Uzbekistan, but was blocked by the Defense department.

She’s also highly intelligent, has won over many formerly skeptical world leaders and diplomats, is articulate and eloquent, and genuinely seems like a decent individual. There are few Republican potential nominees who measure up to all of that. McCain is one. I’ll be damned if I can think of another.

Granted there are many democrats who I believe are impressive as her. Evan Byah, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Wesley Clark. But out of all the Republicans currently, who really are a sorry lot, she’s one of the best.

There’s got to be a reason she’s the only member of the administration who has a high approval rating. 60% last time I looked.

To put it another way, if Barack Obama were simply a young white Senator who was THAT well spoken and thoughtful, I’d be just as excited about him. Charisma is charisma, and I just don’t get that vibe from Condi at all. Maybe it’s because I’m a Dem, but I think a lot of other people feel the same way.

1 being the best Secretary of State the United States has ever had and 10 being the Anti-Christ — where would the Donklephanters put Condi? I put her at a 5 — look at what she has to work with.