Waning Influence - Condi Rice

[deminks]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/22/INGDFR1UV512.DTL

I remember the heady days for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

About 2 1/2 years ago, when she was new in office, I accompanied her on her first trip around the world, with stops in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Korea, Japan and China. Crowds gathered to see her limousine drive past; people whistled, waved and cheered. Interviewers routinely asked her whether she was planning to run for president. One TV reporter in India told her she was "arguably the most powerful woman in the world." She chuckled but did not exactly agree -- or disagree.

How things change.

A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer's war. No one would publish it.

Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department's director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down.

As a last-ditch strategy, the State Department briefly considered translating the article into Arabic and trying a Lebanese paper. But finally they just gave up. "I kept hearing the same thing: 'There's no news in this.' " Floyd said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush's wise leadership. "It read like a campaign document."

[pocoloco]

1. Influence?

I didn't realize she ever did anything on her own?

[Jackpine Radical]

2. So--Is it Condi's waning influence or the Meathead's rising unpopularity?

"The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush's wise leadership. 'It read like a campaign document.'" Nobody seems to want to publish Condi's little paeans to her husband anymore. Even the WSJ is trying to salvage some credibility.

[Faygo Kid]

3. She's still a war criminal. Her influence has never been that great. Cheerleader.

She has done good duty for the neocons on the talk show circuit, faithfully spouting the lies that led us into war. She is one strange duck. Obviously intelligent, but there is a cold bloodedness about her that is chilling.

[JDPriestly]

4. Her whole concept of the nation state being behind everything

is just obsolete. She is about 50 years behind the times. It is old news. The Republicans have no new ideas, no answers to the problems of today.

On edit, make that 150 years behind the times.

[Disturbed]

5. She could resign next week and wouldn't be missed.

In fact, the entire state dept. could go home & it would not change a thing. She and the entire group is a huge waste of Tax money.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Oh, yeah, I remember her

Isn't she playing piano at the Holiday Inn in Toledo now? They make a great Sangria there.

[JacquesMolay]

7. Great point ...

... where the hell has she been? She's like the invisible woman.