I don't entirely like her politics, but have always found Condoleezza Rice quite inspiring. This might be an odd way of putting it (and don't misconstrue what I'm trying to say), but it always seemed that no one ever noticed she was a woman.
Proof positive that gender simply doesn't matter if you are the best at what you do.
That's because she's a Republican. Black republicans aren't held up as examples of racial progress. Instead, their motives are attacked by the liberal media[1].
Probably nobody has suffered more vile attacks than Clarence Thomas[2] for the crime of being Republican while black. To be an inspirational black politician, you must be liberal.
Colin Powell and Condi Rice are both reviled for their roles in the Iraq lie. As far as I know they are still considered examples of racial progress, despite this fact.
This cluster-fsck in Iraq doesn't boil down to one statement. A great book, recommended by Colin Powell as the most accurate, is Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies."
There's probably no-one truly objective on the subject, as politics are entwined in every aspect... but Clarke worked under four administrations. Tenet's book sheds light on the subject as well.
Out of curiosity, how would you describe the Iraq adventure? Is there anything good that can be said about it?
I met a man from Kirkuk 2 days ago - family scattered around the globe, and says he can't go home, or he will be dead in a week. The country is in ruins.
I very much doubt you'll get a useful answer. As you can see the person is hung up on a black/white/pedantic point of the use of the word lie up top. He won't be satisfied by anything less than absolutes.
While some were truly evil, I tend to believe that Bush wanted to believe it enough that he convinced himself of it. The human mind is a subject of its own.
That's absolutely ridiculous. The animus toward black republicans starts in the black community, not in the liberal community. Very very few black people identify as republican, it's practically taken for granted that the republican party does a terrible job of making blacks feel like we are part of their constituency. Furthermore most republican leaders are from districts with either few blacks altogether or few affluent blacks.
Liberals are not destroying the credibility of black republicans, the black community has a profoundly negative view of black republicans.
