Why the Fuss Over Condi Rice? by Anne Applebaum This issue has nagged at me too. The American self-congratulation about the appointment of minorities and women does not so much speak to how far we’ve come against racism and sexism as it does to how far we have to go. “Why is it, in fact, that the appointment of women and
minorities to high office is such a big deal in the United
States? It isn’t necessarily such a big deal everywhere else.” And, lest this appears to be about Dubya alone, recall how big a deal a Jewish vice-presidential candidate was. Pitiful. Slate

Here’s some background on Powell and Rice, also from Slate:

Last weekend President-elect George W. Bush appointed
Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state
and national security adviser, respectively. To read an
“Assessment” of Powell, click here; for one of Rice, click
here. In 1997 Slate’s Franklin Foer argued that the
“affirmative action” that produced Gen. Powell was a
laudable type of reverse discrimination. (Click here to read
the article.) Last summer Slate’s Jacob Weisberg praised
Powell for “calling the GOP’s bluff” at their “minority
extravaganza” of a convention. (To read the article, click
here. Earlier this year Slate’s David Greenberg argued that
the GOP’s treatment of blacks has declined since the days
of Lincoln. (Click here to read the article.)

Meanwhile, the mainstream press, including Time magazine in declaring Dubya its “Person of the Year”, is really doing an awful lot of damning with faint praise. Or is it praising with faint damns as they did throughout the campaign coverage? Slate

And, by the way, did you notice how much “the lady (and the illegitimate son’s other appointments as well) doth protest too much”? They all take pains to tell us how Bush, far from being an intellectual lightweight overshadowed by his appointments and unprepared for the rigors of the Presidency, will really be leading us. Ah, yes, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Can you say “figurehead?” I predict the next administration will be fertile ground for the resurrection of conspiracy theory. Palace intrigues will make for some entertaining reading…

By the way, has anyone resurrected this old chestnut which has been on my mind recently with Dubya’s election? For almost two centuries, the U.S. President elected every twentieth year has died in office. (Ronald Reagan broke the mold only if you don’t believe he was brain-dead before the end of his second term. As a young psychiatric resident, I was interviewed by the press during his second election campaign in 1983-84 about my concerns that he was already showing signs of the Alzheimer’s dementia with which he would not be diagnosed officially until after he left office years later.) JFK, elected in 1960; FDR in 1940; Harding (1920), the other three assassination victims McKinley (1900), Garfield (1880), and Lincoln (1860); and William H. Harrison (1840). Here‘s an almanac listing of the Presidents’ terms if you want to verify this. Should we prepare for a President Cheney? If he doesn’t succomb to his cardiac disease before the illegitimate son’s projected demise?

But enough morbidity and dread, and enough of U.S. Presidential politics for awhile already…