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Alex Moe / NBC News
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks at the ShePAC fundraising event in Washington, D.C., June 25.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped back into the political spotlight Monday night as she headlined her first ever fundraiser in the nation’s capital.
“I am a great optimist,” Rice told attendees, referring to being able to get the country back on track again. She was speaking at an event to raise money for Republican female politicians.
"A little girl grows up in Birmingham, Alabama,” Rice said, noting that her parents were convinced she “could be President of the United States if she wants to be.”
"America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect and we are going to do it again,” Rice said. “We are going to strengthen ourselves, our democracy at home, strengthen our economy.”
Rice, who is currently a professor at Stanford University in California, is viewed as a dark horse choice for presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s running mate.
While she did not address anything related to Romney’s choice for VP in front of the few journalists – nor did she refer to her raved-about speech from Romney’s weekend retreat in Utah – some in attendance hope she is strongly considered for the position.
“It would be great to have a women vice president,” Amanda Abshire of Arlington, Va. said, mentioning she was “inspired” by Rice’s speech tonight. “I think she has the experience and has the respect of the Republican Party and that the core conservatives would support her. It would be such an awesome thing for conservative women too.”
ShePAC – the political action committee Supporting, Honoring & Electing Republican women – hosted the “DC Kickoff Reception” at the Capitol Hill Club and included nearly a dozen sitting female GOP Congress members and candidates from around the country.
Prior to addressing the general reception for which guests paid $1,000 to hear Rice speak – during which guests munched on a variety of cheeses, meats, and watermelon soup – Rice spent nearly 30 minutes talking with the elected officials and candidates, focusing on national security issues.
Rice, a top-ranked official in President George W. Bush’s administration, mentioned Romney just once in her remarks, saying he would be “a terrific president" – she even weighed in slightly to the on-going immigration debate.
"We need an immigration policy that works but, by the way, we need one that the Congress and the President work out together," Rice said.
Wrapping up her roughly 10-minute speech just feet away from the House office buildings, Rice encouraged the mostly female crowd to keep fighting for America.
“It just has to be that the freest and most compassionate and most generous country on the face of the earth has to continue to be the most powerful,” she said.
Rice remains in Washington Tuesday, where she will give opening remarks at the National Women's Hall of Fame event celebrating 40 years of Title IX.
Attendees Monday night included: Senate Candidates Deb Fischer (NE), Heather Wilson (NM), Sarah Steelman (MO), House Candidates Martha Zoller (GA), Lisa Wilson-Foley (CT), Karen Harrington (FL), Wendy Rogers (AZ), Kim Vann (CA), Nancy Jacobs (MD), Faith Loudon (MD), Leah Campos-Schandlbauer (AZ), Maria Sheffield (GA) and representing his wife Mayor Mia Love (UT), Jason Love. Current Congresswomen included: Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), Rep. Sandy Adams (FL), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Rep. Judy Biggert (IL), and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL).
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Another unindicted co-conspirator of the Bush/Cheney Iraq invasion....
......Lying war criminal!
One wonders why she would ally herself with the anti-science forces in America. The anti-scientists believe science is like their religion- a cafeteria where they can pick and choose the parts they like and ignore the rest. You know: television-check; nuclear weapons-check. Evolution and geology, global warming-its a commoie plot. How about the people who booed Bill Nye for suggesting the moon does not shine with its own light! Any bets on whom they're supporting? Rice is shameful- she appears to have sold out all of her integrity-unless she actually believes the anti-science rhetoric. In that case she is as woefully ignorant as most of Romney's supporters. Either that or hypocritically refusing to speak on the subject. Too bad there is not some sort of basic test on science before you can vote. Right now the constituency to which Romney is appealing could pass for the Talaban in their approach to scientific truth. Religion should be kept totally out of the political spectrum.
If Chiiled and the moonbats think Rice is a war criminal it just means that she is a national hero and patriot to our great nation.
Go Condi! We love ya!
Rob in MASS
Too bad that the Senate Intelligence Committee pretty much called Bush an incompetent liar when it comes to the Iraqi War and Condi was part of that failed administration. That would make her guilty by association.
If guilty by association is your claim, then every member of Congress that voted for the Iraq is also guilty...
@chilled
Uh oh, you should put on a hat - your ignorance is showing.
George W Bush got it right. Saddam Hussein was the icon of his terrorist state. When the time was right, Saddam Hussein was captured, and turned over to his own people to be tried by his own people for his crimes. He was convicted by his own new government, and was sentenced to a public hanging by his own people. His death marked the end of Iraq's threat against his people and against the free world.
In contrast, we knew the exact location of Osama Bin Laden for about a year, and had surveillance set up around his hideout officially for over seven months. Osama had a failing kidney and required regular dialysis. By this time, he was on his death bed. Osama wasn't really a threat personally - it was the Al Qaida movement that GW Bush used him to represent that was the threat.
Obama's ratings had just began a free fall due to the unpopularity of the recent Obama-Care. Obama had the icon of the still-active Al Qaida movement martyred on his deathbed, and then had the evidence/body dumped into the ocean - Chicago style. Obama's ratings recovered (back up to a near 50% overall approval rating).
The only thing that this icon's death represented to the world was Barack Obama's sacrifice to the voting Gods. Maybe it sent another tingle up MSNBC's leg. That's one of so many foreign policy and decision-making errors of the Obama presidency.
Also @Chilled
Quick briefing: My father-in-law died in the first Iraq war due to chemical warfare exposure. They had WMDs. They had a lot of time to move them and hide them as they stalled the UN inspectors. With that out of the way...
OPEC is an international oil cartel made up of several countries (half of which are jihadist muslim nations). Internationally, the US dollar is used for the majority of oil trades and other investments and trades. In 2003, the US had $643 B physical dollars in circulation. About half of that was in circulation for use outside of the US (and was really just being used unofficially as the world currency or petro-currency). In a big way, oil prices were tied to the available supply and value of US dollars, and the value of the dollar was tied somewhat to the supply or demand of oil.
In 2001, the jihadist nations teamed up to vote to switch from accepting only USD to excepting only Euros. Venezuela agreed to help out too. So, they had 7 of 12 votes (the amount needed). This vote was to take place at near the same time as the 9/11 bombings. This is key.
Why were the trade towers bombed? They contained the New York Stock Exchange, and were considered the economic center of the western world and its allies. The jihadists also tried to bomb the pentagon, the White House, and the Capital building, but for the most part failed. The intention was to wipe out our economic system, our government, and our military decision makers all in one day. They did it at a time when US economists were already predicting an economic collapse (by 2003).
The world was about to go into panic mode - and would start trying to trade in their dollars for euros or some other more stable currency. This would crash the value of the dollar, not just Internationally, but at home too.
Within three days, GW Bush got approval to attack Afghanistan (one of the main OPEC votes), and had the military over there bombing within three days; however, taking Afghanistan out of the equation would now make a vote 6 of 11 (rather than 7 of 12). We still needed to go after one more of the jihadist nations in order to secure the vote to 5 of 10. Of all the Jihadist nations, Iraq was the most viable option. Additionally, to help secure the trust of our nation's investors and allies, we also threatened to go into Pakistan and Iran based on them harboring terrorists.
Explaining complex economics, politics, and national safety to the general public isn't always successful. And this isn't a complete explanation either. We had knowledge of the WMDs though, and GW's administration used that as a justification. By the time we got there, and UN inspectors had finally jumped through all of the hoops, the WMDs were gone. Still, we militarily controlled the oil territory needed to stay the OPEC currency vote.
If you think that $2 is a lot for a loaf of bread, and that $4 is a lot for gas, you certainly wouldn't be happy about prices suddenly going up to $10 for bread and $20 per gallon of gas (these numbers are for illustrative purposes and weren't calculated). Well, our largest foreign investors (including China, Japan, Europe, and many other nations) wouldn't have been thrilled either.
The jihadist action against our country was intended to annihilate our economy, incite riots and murder in our country over food, to pit our allies against us in war, and ultimately to destroy the western world. Instead, all we noticed was that gas was at $4 per gallon, and that bread went up to $2. The value of the USD did change internationally as well based on the new risk that was realized by 9/11, and due to the fact that two of the four remaining OPEC jihadist nations went against the vote of the cartel, and switch to the euro anyways.
They also tried cutting oil production, etc. when the currency vote didn't prove effective. However, the welfare states of these jihadist oil nations largely depend on oil revenues - and so do their weapons and bullet expenses. As the presidential campaigning began to choose Obama as the winner, GW Bush finished off the war in Iraq, and put in a short-trem measure to ensure peace in the Middle East via manipulating the oil production (via manipulating demand) and the money supply - basically using the terrorists' own manipulation tactics against them to starve them out (the dollar being tied to oil also works the other way). This would leave the new president in a good position to wrap things up and follow through on their promise of a six-month withdrawal from Iraq, etc. (which oddly enough didn't happen).
GW Bush and his extremely brilliant and skilled administration, in conjunction with our military and the cooperation of other nations kept the intended damage from happening. You're safer and more free because of the Bush administration, and specifically because of Condi Rice's efforts.
To verify my info, you can do a quick Wikipedia lookup for the following topics: Money Supply, United States Dollar, Petro-currency, OPEC, Iraq War, War in Afghanistan, international use of the dollar.
Yawn...
"Condoleezza Rice for President/VP in 2012/16. Join this group of supporters from everywhere on the world wide web."
Rice for President Yahoo Group
(sorry my links have been filtered out)
Condoleezza Rice for President/VP Video Playlist
I do believe Ms. Rice with Her strong international experience, would be a great asset for Mr.Romney in a multitude of positions. I think VP would probably be the best For Her and the Country, with the experience she already has and with an additional eight Years in that position She would, without a doubt be one of the most well prepared Presidential Candidates We have ever had, and I believe by that time, the Country would also be ready.
Condi would not be an asset to Mitt Romney, she would show him up to be an ignorant, bumbling fake-President, just as she did George W. Bush.
I will allow: the woman is gifted; but she has the worst taste in men.
I agree, she would be the ideal person for Romney's VP pick, if only she would accept it. Her knowledge of foreign affairs and national security issues would be invaluable to Romney. She is perhaps one of the smartest politicians to ever serve this country. Just imagine the debates between her and Biden.
Wow- you do know she lied through her teeth to the 911 commision don't you?
Condi - please crawl back into that hole of yours.
Go away please.
True loyalty requires that no matter how many times your group of "peers" have kicked you to the curb, discounted your opinions (even when you were right) and essentially treated you like @!$%# for oh, lo these many years, you always stand up for your group and press to ensure it's views become the only view.
You do what it takes.
I feel sorry for her, it's pretty pathetic, really.
The reason Mitt Romney doesn't make statements about what he would do dirctly as president,or decisions about supreme court decision, he doest know the issues. He only knows the greed and hunger for power he's always lived by. He's an educated, arrogant moron, who will destroy the middle class,taking america with him should he be elected. He will only do what his narrow little mind allows him to see, take care of Mitt and friend, money money,deregulation. Americans are proving to have short memories. President Obama is not the cause of oue economy. George W. is. He gave trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the top 2%,started a war on a lie among many other selfess acts, while lining his pockets with money. There's no way this economy could be healed in four years. Romney is so sleazy, he could slide through a crack in a door.
Romney does what is best for him , always.
Veterans, military retirees; note that Romney PROMOTED THE DRAFT, then skipped out to France for extraordinary lenth of time when church missionary tours were limited. When Romney came home, he sided with his dad that the whole Viet Nam War was a scam and that he was against the war. His early flip flops, he is good at.
Promoting the draft, while Americans were dieing, he skipped out, then says he wishes he could have participated. Pro church, Anti Americam.
Obama should offer her and Colin Powell positions in his cabinet, take away the last little hope of repubs ever looking non-racist.
It would not matter if Romney picked Powell for VP, Rice for Treasury, Jackson for DOJ, Wright for DOS, and loaded every US WH office with black leaders. He would not pick up 10 Black VOTES. AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE NATURAL DEMOCRATS. And always will be.
As for Romney and the draft. I see that Obama did not join the military either! WTF is that about?
Too bad that the Senate Intelligence Committee pretty much called Bush an incompetent liar when it comes to the Iraqi War and Condi was part of that failed administration. That would make her guilty by association.
Its really to bad the BUSH kept CLINTONS Intelligence staff on the payroll and the entire So called intelligence community said WAR. Bush even kept the Clintons CIA director. Bush was a TEXAS GOVERNOR, who was not in the loop and was not in Washington very long before 911. BLAME CLINTON FOR THE WAR and KERRY FOR THE WAR FIRST. Try to get EDUCATED before you hearl your uneducated trash on the very uneducated public.
Africans are Natural Born Democrats. Worldwide.
The old Democratic party should be renamed as the AFROCRATIC PARTY. Its earned and its TRUE.
Their really is a reason that 99% of all Africans are democrats
Wow- you do know she lied through her teeth to the 911 commision don't you?
DO YOU KNOW that Hillary Clinton got herself on the 911 Commission , when in fact should have not gotten herself on that commission as a matter of CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Her Husband, Bill had Osama in chains twice and refused to take him in. THis was long before 911, This was back when that IDIOT OLLIE NORTH was SAYING NATIONALLY that the most dangerious man to Americans on earth was non other then BIN LADIN , Ollie had a concealed gun permit in Fairfax county. THE ONLY ONE ISSUED. And a 12' Electric fence around his house WHY? Becasue of BIN LADIN. OLLIE KNOW the problems with him. But CLINTON CHOSE NOT TO. Hillary PROTECTED BILL and the CLINTONS. They are as big a part of 911 as BIN LADIN WAS. :LOOK IT UP Get educated THEN POST
RICE was the National Security advisor, And actually HID for two days after 911, SHE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED on the SPOT. Head in sand. but Bush did not want to agrivate the AFrican americans. So he got her out of the NSA and gave her the Secretray of State DO NOTHING JOB. World paid vacation. DO NOTHING JOB.