Reply #15: you are on the right track [View All]

but her sex and skin tone do play a role. She must uber-succeed because of that and has used those two facets admirably to help her succeed. A hardened journalist, looking over her total abject failure in Iraq, the NSC and State would be raking her over the coals with razors. Her color and her sex prevent that. Your previously hard-boiled J-man is unconsciously preventing himself from being called a racist or a sexist, and therefore gives her a pass.

If you recall how Hillary was treated by the par-boiled NYNY press as though she were royalty, rather than a valid target for hard hitting questions and reports, you get a sense of what has happened to Condi. (Hillary had a few holes that were never poked - billing records, her National Health plan, and more - but the press never looked into that. I still think she would have won and she probably would have handled tough questioning beautifully, but it never came)

Unfortunately, Rice has lost sight of reality and has been co-opted, probably very willingly, by the Feiths and Cheneys. She follows their plan because they managed to make her important in their world and in her own eyes. She sees her current condition as one of success, because of the neocons and their philosophy. She is not mature enough to realize that the whole approach they promote is collapsing under its own weight of crap.

If she were truly brilliant, she could set aside the neocons and go her own way, but her training and indoctrination have been too successful. She is weak and will never let go of her safety line. Her brilliance is more a PR move, rather than a fact. Smart? sure? Co-opted? completely. I mean really, how often do you get a oil tanker named after you? You think that she might owe them something for that and her Board appointments?

On edit, I think that the Hillary - Condi comparison is quite valid.
Hillary is self made. She fought her way to the top, she took risks and created opportunities.

Condi was made by others, who planned to use her appropriately down the road. She is being groomed for the Neocon III invasion.
Reagan was Neocon one, with many of the same criminals present there, working their mischief here.
Shrub is Neocon two. Between term limitations and a general recognition that they really fucked up, they are getting ready for a loss of the House and the presidency. At the same time, they are building the groundwork for their third reign, under a puppet who they master called Condi.