New Yorker suggests Rice as McCain's VP RAW STORY

Published: Monday March 10, 2008



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Print This Email This Rice 'could deflect Obama/Clinton attacks' The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg makes the case for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to pick an unlikely ally in his bid for the presidency: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "If McCain really wants to have it allto refurbish his maverick image without having to flip-flop on the panderings that have tarnished it; to galvanize the attention of the press, the nation, and the world; to make a bold play for the center without seriously alienating the basethen he can avail himself of a highly interesting option: Condoleezza Rice." Rice, he says, would saddle McCain with the legacy of the Iraq war. McCain, however, has already been a staunch defender of the war -- so it might not hurt him as much. "Rice would fit nicely into McCains view of the war as worth fighting but, until Donald Rumsfelds exit from the Pentagon, fought clumsily," he writes. "And it would be fairly easy to establish a story line that would cast Rice as having been less Bushs enabler than a loyal subordinate who nevertheless pushed gently from within for a more reasonable, more diplomatic approach." "Her nomination to a constitutional executive office would cost McCain the votes of his partys hardened racists and incorrigible misogynists. They are surely fewer in number, though, than the people who would like to participate in breaking the glass ceiling of race or gender but, given the choice, would rather do so in a more timid way, and/or without abandoning their party," he adds. "And with Rice on the ticket the Republicans could attack Clinton or Obama with far less restraint." Even so, Hertzberg says Rice's "record in office has been one of failure, from downgrading terrorism as a priority before 9/11 to ignoring the Israel-Palestine problem until (almost certainly) too late." "But this does not seem to have done much damage to her popularity," he notes. "In a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken when opposition to the Iraq war was approaching its height, she enjoyed a favorable-unfavorable rating of nearly two to one." "Choosing Rice would be a trick," he concludes. "Her failures would be buried in an avalanche of positive publicity for a personal story as yet only vaguely known to the broad public. (One of the little girls who died in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing was her playmate? We didnt know that!) But the trick would not be an entirely cynical one. Her ascension, though nowhere near as momentous a breakthrough as the election of Obama or Clinton, would be a breakthrough all the same. In this connection, a kind word for George W. Bush may be in order. By appointing first Colin Powell and then Rice to the most senior job in the Cabinet, a job of global scope, Bush changed the way millions of white Americans think about black public officials. This may turn out to the most positive legacy of his benighted Presidency."



