“September 11th taught me that there are people in the world who… it’s rather harsh to say it — if you don’t get them before they get you, you’ll suffer. It’s the hardest thing about this terrorist fight, We don’t have an option to let them commit the crime and then punish it afterwards. Quite literally, we have to get them before they get us.” — Condoleezza Rice
I’m a long-time fan of Condi Rice and just watched her interview on Oprah’s “Oprah Presents Master Class.” Every kid in America ought to watch that episode.
In the course of the interview, Condi said that her dad was a Republican because the Democrat party (Birmingham, AL) refused to register him to vote. The Republicans registered him though. [I’ve never really understood why blacks eschew the party of Lincoln in favor of the party of, well, George Wallace, Lester Maddox, Strom Thurmond, Robert Byrd and the like.]
Since practically as far back as I can remember, I’ve referred to the accommodation of slavery at the founding of the U.S.A. as its “Achilles heel.” Condi referred to it as a “birth defect” of the U.S. I like her expression better and plan to use that in the future.
Forget Palin, forget Hillary, gimme a chance to vote for Condoleezza Rice for president.