blevkog

Does anyone still have any doubts that Condoleeza Rice is going to make a bid for the presidency in '08? I noted in a previous post that the media coverage of her has changed in recent months in all of the ways that indicated she was in grooming mode. Just about the only thing she had left to do was to was what every other contender has either already done - distance herself from President Bush. For the others in the race this was relatively easy - get huffy about the DP World port non-deal or foam at the mouth ineffectually about torture were both popular in recent months, but for Rice, who is the only one from Bush's inner circle likely to run, indeed the only one likely with a political future, this is more difficult.

There is a fine political line between admitting errors and admitting mistakes, and she is attempting to walk that line. Indeed, she admitted to possibly "thousands" of them. She did it in the only way open to her if she was to keep herself clean of the debacle that is the war - she drew the line between admitting "errors" in the conduct of the war in Iraq, but not allowing that the war itself was a mistake (link to CNN article). Balancing the patently obvious reality of the "errors" with the long-term, dare I use the word "optimistic"? view that the choice to go to war was strategically the correct thing to do.

Whether or not the historians of the future are going to smile on the Iraq invasion is an open question, but it really is the only way that she can both keep her political hopes alive and maintain a good working relationship with her boss and prayer buddy.

Posted by kevvyd on Friday, March 31, 2006 at 8:41 PM | Permalink