Comments on: Assessing Condi Rice

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

First, he was hot on the trail of Bush's 30 year old records in the National Guard... now a 20 year old book review.

Kevin Drum - one man cutting edge of investigative journalism.

By: Kevin Holtsberry

Kevin Holtsberry — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I really don't understand why people respect Drum so much. He is clearly a partisian hack (I don't mean that as an horrible insult as I am largely a partisian hack). To dig up a 20 year old book and a negative review and try to imply it shows why Rice is ineffective is just lame. As you said she may be wrong but she isn't stupid.

If you really want to get depressed read the comments, full of people sure that Rice is an idiot barely capable of functioning let alone thinking.

By: ogged

ogged — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Kevin's point seems quite reasonable: Kalvoda identifies weaknesses in Rice's book that are the weaknesses of her approach to foreign policy. I was being the partisan hack, but I think there's a lot of evidence that Rice just isn't very bright. The first piece is her performance as National Security Advisor, the second is that the only person less shaky in public appearances is GW himself. James, I'd be interested in documentation of her high intelligence.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Since when does intelligence equate to a silver tongue?

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Ogged, her biography rather speaks for itself. She's a concert grade pianist, started college at age 15, has her Ph.D. from a major IR school, Hoover Fellow, etc.

By: ogged

ogged — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Thanks James. I did know that stuff about her. I'm sure that you, as an (ex)academic, you never met anyone with a good resume who was anything less than whip-smart. ;)

By: JayH

JayH — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Started college at 15? That doesn't prove anything. Maybe she just used her family's extensive influence to get in...oh, that's right, her family didn't have any.

Give it up, ogged...the lady is very smart...

By: craig henry

craig henry — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

When Peter Paret and Gordon Craig came out with the second edition of "The Makers of Modern Strategy", they got contributions from a Who's Who of military historians. And who did they choose to write about modern Soviet doctrine and strategy? Not Kevin Drum or Josef Kalvoda.

Yeah, it was Rice. And this in in 1984-1986 before she served in government and when she was barely into her thirties.

So she might have been wrong, but she is hardly a moron.

By: Alex Knapp

Alex Knapp — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Considering the howling from many Democrats that Rice's nomination was merely to be the "token black woman" of the Bush Administration, does the questioning of her intelligence surprise you? After all, she's just a woman! And black! What could she possibly know about anything?

By: bryan

bryan — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Given Ogged's penchant for making gross overstatements about Dr. Rice's intelligence, and his inability to admit that he can't do a google search OR admit to a mistake, one could almost come to the conclusion that it is Ogged who is a moron and in way over his head.

By: craig henry

craig henry — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Uh, James. That "glowing review" you quoted came from a Holocaust denial site.....

Or was that intentional? I wonder what Drum would have said had he found a favorable review of Rice's book on an Aryan Nation site?

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Craig,

Interesting. There's not much Google info on a minor academic from the pre-Internet era, so one takes what one can get. Indeed, most of the hits were Czech sites. The review appeared legit on its fact; I didn't dig into the source.

By: ogged

ogged — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Geez, call someone a moron and people get all offended. Like I said, I know her resume, and obviously I don't mean moron like she couldn't manage a Burger King, but she's done a horrible job as National Security Advisor, she's a shaky public speaker, and her scholarship has been called into question. Given the distance between those facts and her current position of responsibility, I think "moron" fits.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Interesting how something 20 years ago (while fundamentally still a student) is being used to characterize Ms. Rice. Would Kevin like something he wrote 20 years ago to be the definite summantion of his intelligence or career. Or to be a little more fair, lets just use his first or second ever blog post.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I forgot...these are the same people who insist we don't look at Kerry's previous speeches to characterize him