Redstate

By California Yankee Posted in 2008 | Condoleezza Rice | Iraq | John McCain | vice president — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I respectfully disagree with David Hinz. Condi, should not be McCain's running mate.

Condi might have more relevant "experience" than Hillary or Obama, but she has never campaigned for elective office. More important, she failed to distinguish herself as the person in charge at the State Department.

In February Manual Miranda wrote a blistering departure assessment of the State Department's meager efforts in Iraq:

A State Department official this week issued a blistering critique of Foreign Service bureaucrats at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for undermining civilian stability efforts in Iraq.

"After a year at the embassy, it is my general assessment that the State Department and the Foreign Service [are] not competent to do the job that they have undertaken in Iraq," said Manuel Miranda, a conservative former Senate staff member who is part of the office of legislative statecraft in Baghdad.

[. . .]

Mr. Miranda's most stinging accusation is that the State Department is an "albatross around the neck of the coalition command."

The department "failed to assist coalition initiatives by delaying or failing to supply the civilian expertise needed in a thoughtful and timely manner and also delaying decisions on funding and staffing vital to GOI (and our) success," he said, using the acronym for the government of Iraq.

Also, the embassy has blocked the flow of information to the White House and other policy-makers, the State Department in Washington, and the commanding general in Baghdad, fearing leaks to the press.

[. . .]

Mr. Miranda said the State Department's Iraq operations, judged by private sector standards, is "willfully negligent, if not criminal."

Read on.

The response from Condi's State Department consisted of supporting her team:

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Mr. Miranda, as a temporary appointed employee in Iraq, "is entitled to his opinion."

"However, the president and Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice believe that Ambassador Crocker and his team at Embassy Baghdad are performing ably under incredibly difficult circumstances," he said.

And who can forget the cowardly refusal of members of Condi's State Department to accept assignments in Iraq. Bill Kristol and Dean Barnett contrasted the State Department refusals with the heroics of the four soldiers who fought off nearly 40 al Qaeda fighters -- a magnificently told story written by RedState's Jeff Emanuel.

Dr. Steven Taylor has it exactly right:

Rice’s positives: black, female, not in her 70s.

Negatives: Bush’s foreign policy.

I have a hard time seeing the former overshadowing the latter.

There was a time when Rice was considered a clear up-and-comer in the party, but given her central role in the Bush foreign policy apparatus, first as National Security Advisor and then as Secretary of State, it would seem that Rice would bring only negatives to the ticket. McCain already has an Iraq problem and the only way he can even hope to try and deal with it is to say that he will be more competent than the Bush administration has been on the subject. The inclusion of Rice on the ticket would make such an argument far more difficult to make.