Katie on Condi
(CBS)
I’ve been working this week on a profile of Condoleezza Rice for Sunday’s 60 Minutes.
This is a woman who is “scary smart” – so intelligent, it’s scary. She seems to have a photographic memory. She can tick off events and dates in a way that made my head spin. She’s also an astute, passionate student of history--and history is what is giving her enormous confidence and comfort in the crafting of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy.
During our interview, she cited the Civil War, the Cold War, and other dark days in international history to demonstrate that very trying times are often worth the end result.
I think I have a better understanding of her “foreign policy psyche” from hearing about her childhood experiences. She grew up in the heart of the segregated south in Birmingham, Alabama, and literally felt the repercussions of the church bombing in September 1963. Two miles away, she felt her house shake from the blast. Four young girls were killed, including one who had been a playmate of hers. You get the distinct sense that she understands and appreciates the philosophy of terror -- and feels for the unwitting victims of a twisted political agenda that targets the innocent.
Condi Rice is an eternal optimist. She believes that good will triumph over evil, and feels strongly that other countries deserve the same rights that we have. And she believes it’s the role of the United States to stand beside them and support them.
In one of our most intense exchanges, she compared people who say that certain countries and peoples were not equipped to handle democracy to those who discounted and dismissed African Americans before the Civil Rights movement fully took hold.
She’s much warmer, more “girly” and fun than the disciplined, controlled stateswoman you see on the world stage. She doesn’t have a lot of free time, but she preserves Sunday afternoons as “her time.” She likes to play tennis, and is learning how to play golf – she says she likes it and is getting good at “reading the greens.”
And then there’s her music. She loves playing the piano -- it really is “instrumental” in her life. She describes playing music as “transporting” – it’s the only time her brain isn’t focused on world events, because it requires so much to focus on music. If you take your eye off the notes, you can muck it up.
And Condi Rice doesn’t like to muck anything up.
What's with the Condi Commercial? I hope your interview was more than the typical set of softball questions. I hope you asked her about why she lied so many times about WMD s in Iraq, and how she feels about the tens of thousands of innocent civilians who have died as a result of their needless War. Did you ask her about the $300 Billion we've spent, or if she is aware that the Bush Wars have killed more Americans than Osama did on 9-11?
Did you ask her about the Downing street memos? Perhaps why the Office of Strategic Plans was set up by Cheney and Rummy to end run the career CIA to send "intelligence" from fake/discredited sources into the White house? So many questions to ask. I'm sure you must have covered something besides how smart (yes the Iraq Invasion was brilliant!) and peppy she is.
My hunch is the latter.
Why did she LIE us into a needless War in Iraq? What about $300 Billion wasted on WAR? What about the tens of thousands of dead and maimed inncocent Iraqi civilians? What about the thoudsands of (mostly poor and middle class) Americans that have been used as cannon fodder for this Bush folly? Why did we pull 90% of our forces out of Afghanistan (letting Osama go free) in order to Invade Iraq, when fly-overs, inspectors and sanctions had put Saddam under our thumb? Saddam hated Islamic fundamentalists, noe Bush-Cheney-Condi have handed Iraq over to them!
TheInvasion of Iraq was a "muck" up on a colossal scale!
Katie, did any of this ocurr to you, or are you just doing your corporate job of feeding us the same old fluff and GOP spin.
In the middle east, what country sends a minority woman to speak for their country?
We sent a brilliant, talented (overly so), minority, woman to the middle east to bring the parties together.
We BLEW IT.
When negotiations of this level are being done, you have to respect, at every level, the person sitting next to you and across from you. Respect is what always gets it done at the end of the day.
Our secretary of state is a fantastic mind. She represents all that is great about America. She took opportunities that she mainly found herself and she forged them into an honorable career, with which she has tried to help.
Is she always right?
No.
In this case she put herself at the table.(probably with some help from her boss.) But I gotta say I think that's a blown call. Who in the American diplomatic party does the middle east respect? Who on our side of the table can, without the threat of military intervention, get these parties to talk?
Is it really our secretary of state?
We need to be mindful of the cultures in play. We need to be respectful. Not since Franklin have we needed a mind that can walk into Paris, sit in the parlor's until all hours of the night and negotiate on behalf of the country.....and walk out with a favorable outcome. At the end of the day Condi is good, but she is not Franklin.(by no fault of her own.)
Thank you for presenting a personable side of Condi Rice. Putting all politics and opinions aside, it is interesting to know more about the person.
Linda from NY
Tonight, I watched 60 Minutes; and the first thing on this excellent show was your interview with Ms. Rice.......it was a glowing moment in republican propaganda; and helped me to understand why I dispise and hate this administration's policies and the republican party so well.
Ms. Rice is the epidemy of the country's ignorance and blindness of what must be considered a "lemming mentality" of the president's failed "war on terror"; blindly following whatever this administration tells her is true, she espouts all of the retoric and republican dogma that she can, in order to give the impression of a "good" american. And what's more she also tried to compare the present conditions to the Civil Rights clash of the 60's......I was highly insulted by that one! And, how many times can you shift blame to a new Middle-Eastern country or individual to justify your need for conquest? This woman spouts the praises of her boss.....I can't subscribe to her ignominious comments nor her view of the world at large.
Seems you are one of the few who still believe the Bush lies about WMDs. Read Scott Ritter's books - he's a Republican, ex-Marine, and as in Iraq heading the UN inspection team throughout the 1990s.
Saddam was under our thumb, there WERE NO WMDs, this was OBVIOUS to people who bothered to look into the Bush/Condi/Rumsfeld flase claims of aluminum tubes, Niger yellow cake uranium, the fake 'ties to Al Quaeda' (Saddam hated Isalmic fundamnentalists, duh), the 'mushroom clouds'. And considering the motives outlined in PNAC papers, whats to figure out? Wake Up! Your Republican Party has been hijacked by a bunch of very dangerous people, who exploit 9-11 for their politics or fear, hate and WAR. They have you so afraid, I guess you will believe anything.
So who is sacrificing for this War OF Terror? One Trillion in tax cuts for the super-wealthy, massive deficits, trade deficits, jobs outsourced, attempts to dismantle Social Security, Haliburton record profits.... This Bush-Cheney regime is a complete and total DISASTER (unless you are one of the very rich, of course - then Bush is your man!)
Congratulations!! I loved when you said to Condi, in a very direct way, "that's not the question".
I am so tired of reporters asking questions of politicians and the response not answering the question! You are brave enough to say it how it is. keep up the great work.
Jill
-
by jmehrlich
September 25, 2006 8:08 PM EDT
- I'm sorry Ms. Couric, but this piece above is pure cotton candy: fluff, spin and sugar coated.
-
Reply to this comment
-
See all 26 CommentsYou begin by talking about her great memory, but fail to note that she repeatedly testified to not remembering key conversations when she was before the September 11 Commission. In fact it was a photograph of a previous presidential advisor on national security Adm. William D. Leahy testifying regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor that forced Ms. Rice to give up the line that no presidential advisor ever testified before a committee before (this was before the position of National Security Advisor was formalized).