I can't imagine why Mitt Romney would be seriously considering Condi Rice to be his running mate. It makes no sense politically. It is nonsense in terms of practical government if Romney happens to be elected.
On a political level, Rice has no constituency whatsoever. She is an academic and is very intelligent. However, she has no base of support which will automatically flow into the Romney column by his choice of her. Her race, let's be blunt, is probably at least one thing Romney is considering as an attribute in order to counter Obama's significant and probably growing lead among all racial groups other than whites. But even on the crude racial level, the choice makes no sense. African-Americans, generally, have a distaste for Rice. They, to a large extent, view her as an opportunist who is used by whites as a black-face to put into a white administration. She will be viewed this way even more so while running as vice-President. Whites tend to distrust Rice because she conjures up memories of the W. Bush administration, by definition bad for Romney.
On another political level, Rice is viewed as extremely liberal by Conservatives, especially on social issues. She will be viewed as an opportunist pick to "make the minorities happy" and it will further racialize this election which is exactly Obama's goal. The more the election is about race the better for Obama. The residual pride in the election of an African-American President in 2008 still lingers and is flamed up again when race becomes an issue. The choice of Condi will simply keep the election's focus on race, something Romney needs to avoid.
On a practical governing level, all of Rice's experience is in foreign policy in a moment where the economy is in a state of slow train wreck, and becoming faster. Romney, if elected, will need all the help he can receive in order to solve economic problems and a Vice-President that has all the attributes of a Secretary of State does not necessarily help in that area.
I can only conclude that the Condi Rice moment is just a moment. It is a story put out by the Romney campaign to gauge the reaction of the Public and of Conservatives to a Rice ticket. I can't imagine Romney will actually choose her. I expect other people to have their moment as "trial balloons" before this long process is over.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I hadn't heard about the possibility of C. Rice as a running mate for Romney until reading your post just now. Agreed, she seems an odd choice for the reasons you mentioned. Even though she is capable and very intelligent, and in my opinion, did a good job, she wasn't particularly well-liked (which is sad, I think).
This just occurred to me though: President Obama would have benefited very much by having C. Rice as Secretary of State. Unlike Mrs. Clinton, she is an acknowledged expert in foreign policy. Political party allegiances and so forth being what they are, well, it would have never happened, I realize.
Ellie, I agree Rice is intelligent.In my opinion she would be interchangeable as a Secretary of State for Bush or Obama. In that sense I agree as well. She would have been a good choice for Obama as a representative of a seamless US foreign policy that transcends both political parties and, unfortunately from my perspective, defies sense or even common-sense.
The promiscuity with which the US engages the use of armed force in the world is counter-productive and destructive to the interests of the United States. At some point, perhaps soon, this heedless recklessness will lead to a reckoning that I'd like to avoid. Public servants like Rice and Clinton, for all their brilliance, charge us headlong toward this reckoning with seemingly no sense for the interests of our nation, save for a nebulous and mushy "humanitarianism" that simply serves as a mask for the shortest of short-term "interests."
War is an unavoidable part of the human condition, reminding us that a part of that condition still resides in the depraved and irrational depths of our animal being. War must be prepared for to be avoided. But to seek it, to seek phantoms and dragons to slay hither and yon, is to leave your nation vulnerable and unprepared for the war that you did not seek and because of your heedlessness, did not plan for. That is how a nation crosses the threshold into the darkroom of war and falls into the abyss.
Ellie, I thank you for your comment. I deeply appreciate it. I will check out your blog and always feel free to comment here on whatever you like, all opinions are welcome.
Thank you.
Post a Comment