Showing posts with label Condoleezza Rice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Condoleezza Rice. Show all posts

Saturday, July 14, 2012

VICE PRESIDENT RICE?




 There is a rumour that Ms Condoleezza  Rice would be chosen by Mitt Romney as running mate though Condi Rice has stoutly denied having such an idea for her. It is a fact that she is still a crowd puller despite her absence from public life for nearly four years. Except for this election time  She has been leading a quite life with her work as Professor at Stanford University with an occasional speech on invitation.  Contrary to her hectic life as Secretary of State, she is hardly mentioned  anywhere  or seen on the front pages of Newspapers. She should have been forgotten from the American mind long since had she not been in possession of a rare quality to remain alive in the minds of people.  The standing ovation she received recently at Utah fund raising meeting and similar others are proof of her popularity.

 Even though Rice is an acceptable person for the post of Vice Presidency  there are many ifs and buts to her journey from Stanford to the White House at the moment

Ms Rice is an introvert by nature and as such she does not like standing for elections and consequent public scrutiny. Her stout denial of any plan to stand as running mate of Mitt Romney stems from it. Ms Rice said that she did not even run for student council president post and that she did not see herself in any elective post. However it is difficult to say if she would change her mind if she is seriously approached with the demand.

The post of Vice President in the U.S. is mostly ceremonial when the president is there. If called for,  the Vice President has to do a casting vote during the senate voting and a speech once in a while, that’s all there is to it officially. But as an adviser and supporting person to the President a Vice President matters. Ms Rice with her experience as President Bush’s National security adviser and later Secretary of State has enviable experience and she would be an asset for a newly elected President.

Though Ms Rice was at the power centre for many years she was never in the midst of serious controversy and she cleverly avoided public ire. Her name coming up for consideration for the post of V P itself is a proof of her good standing among the politicians and the general public.

However,  she certainly had a past working under a Republican President and if someone wants to begin on a clean slate Rice might not be his choice. Again, Rice has her own views on certain things like Abortion, Gun Control, Gay marriage etc. and the one who chooses her as a partner for Presidency  must have to be in tune with her views  for peaceful co-existence.

Any way  Rice is unlikely to succumb to the demand to become Vice President. But it beats me as to why she is active in politics with political speeches at fund raising meetings and other gatherings all of a sudden?  The question is, is it just a show of support to the Republicans or more to it than meets the eye?




Thursday, February 19, 2009

WHAT IS CONDI RICE DOING NOW ?

TO THE QUESTION   as to what Ms.Condoleezza Rice must be doing now, a light minded reply was that she is counting her money in a remote island. It meant that after such an high and  hectic profession she must have earned a lot of money and busy as she was always,could not count them until relinquishing her job in the state Dept.and she is counting the chickens leisurely now in a breezy island.

She certainly had a hectic life as American state secy and as a trusted person of President Bush. Very professional,she always looked busy and seemed to have no life apart from diplomacy.

She was the only child to her parents. Her father, John Wesley Rice was a protestant Minister in a church established by his father. Her mother,Angelena Ray was a music teacher.

Ms Rice started learning French, Music and Ballet at the age of three and by the time she was 15 she gained fairly good skill at playing piano and her desire then was to become a concert pianist. But she learned soon (being smart) that she did not play well enough to support her life with that profession. So she enrolled in the University of Denver and attended a course in international politics taught by Josef Korbel who saw her talent in politics and urged her to further study it. She took masters degree in political science and later Phd.

She worked in universities and in the U.N.until she took up the assignment of secy.of state, on invitation of President Bush in 2004.

President Bush met condi under guidance from his father who told Rice to make Bush expert in foreign affairs. It was a tall order for condi. The rumour had it, that condi made a list of foreign leaders for Bush to read every night before going to bed so as to get him accustomed to the persons involved in foreign affairs.

The Time proved that Ms.Rice could not make President Bush an expert in foreign affairs. The fact was, neither of them proved good at it, as their combined performance in the White House was never spectacular.

However, it can be said that Bush learned the alphabet of Foreign Affairs from Rice.

In course of time Bush developed a blind trust in her judgement and later it was her word that mattered to Bush in deciding foreign policy. As such, There was no two opinion that Ms Rice had great influence on Bush. Condi went to Bush family retreat every weekend and played golf or cooked chicken or watched football or simply jogged around. She was a member of the family there and she got direct access to the President whenever she wanted, both at home and office.

Ms.Rice shared the views on Iraq with President Bush (or was it the other way round?) and like Bush she believed that Iraq possessed nuclear arsenal or other weapons of mass destruction ready to use against its enemies which included the U.S.

In fact there were conflicting intelligence reports about Iraq and the President was confused on the real position in Iraq. There are many advisers for the President of the U.S.A .but the decisions have to be made alone. Often the judgement might prove wrong in the long run as happened in the case of Iraq

In Iraq Time proved that it was a stupendous mistake to have had gone for a war in there at a loss of lives of about 7 Lakh Iraqi people,  thousands of American and other allies' soldiers and loss or damage of houses numbering thousands. There are tens of thousands wounded who must be suffering still.  The U.S. spent unlimited money with a vengeance for it. A conservative estimate is that about one trillion Dollars were spent by U.S in Iraq war jeopardizing its own economy. On the whole it was a sordid war America could well have avoided. just to find out ultimately that Iraq did not possess nuclear or other mass-destruction weapons. The underlying truth was Saddam Hussein was just bragging about Weapons of mass destruction to irritate the U.S.

It is sad that an intelligent lady like Rice could not find the truth and help Bush to save the war.  Unfortunately she could not contribute anything positive in the matter.

Ms.Rice did not marry. When a reporter questioned this phenomena her reply was:
'You can not marry the abstract,  that is, one has to find a suitable person to marry and I have yet not seen one'. However the Rice researchers have discovered a tiny affair she had with a football player which, however, did not last long.


Ms.Rice has tremendous stage presence despite her tiny figure. She entered the world of men with such a self assurance that few dared to speak against her. I do not know whether it is true, but late Israeli P.M.Ariel Sharon had reportedly said that he could not conduct negotiations in front Ms Rice as he got confused when his eyes stopped on MS Rice's slim legs.


Rice's assistants say that she is very feminine and that She likes expensive designer clothes of Armani or Oscar de lenta and has an impressive collection of shoes. Again, it is said that she had posed for Vogue Magazine and had answered readers' questions on fashion in another glamour magazine.

On seeing her no-nonsense face these statements are difficult to stomach. But then women are difficult to predict and as such it might also be true, like that she is a music lover.

Rice is an accomplished pianist. As said earlier, she joined college actually for music degree but was changing subject mid-way to political science. Yet she is above average as a pianist. Even at such a tiny age of three she reasonably played that instrument. The music came to her from her maternal side. Her mother was a music teacher and grandmother also had it in her system. It was after attending the prestigious summer school in Aspen music festival in Colorado, she realized that though she was a very good pianist she was not 'The Great'. She said that it was a sort of revelation for her to understand that there were certain 'intangibles' in music which only the 'Masters' could do.


The life of Ms. Rice is a typical dream-come-true-model success story. However it did not come to her easily. She led a systematic life and from her early years onwards she planned her life ( even days and years ) meticulously, correcting courses when a course correction was needed. In the end her hard work enabled her to become the Secy.of state in the U.S from her humble beginnings. It is said that she knew what she was going to do tomorrow,the coming month or the next year. Rice had a vision and a meticulous planning that only the winners possess.


Condi Rice seems to have both the tenderness of a music lover and the calm assurance of a diplomat.Way back in 2005 during a Sudan visit her accompanying staff were mistreated by the security men there and on hearing that she demanded an official apology from Sudan Government. Within no time she got the apology and the complaints of her staff taken care of.


Now, after retiring from such an hectic and exciting life what Rice must be doing to keep her comfortably occupied ?
Well, there is a chance to take up Music as it is both comforting and exciting, as such she certainly must have returned to the world of music and who knows,she might even get over the 'intangibles' there and become a Master pianist one day.

Remember,she is just 51 years old and the day is still young for her.

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EPILOGUE: On relinquishing her office, she chose the Californian life and joined the
Stanford as a political science professor. She now profusely attends meetings and lectures on various topics while staying aloof on commenting the present administration, showing the grace to be silent.
She is still a crowd puller despite her relatively long absence from front pages.
On her music career, she does not seem to be perusing it seriously.
And Rice remains single. Obviously,no man could interest her yet...

AUTHOR
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