Hence my suggestion for Rice as the ticket leader. I like Powell, and don’t get me wrong, if he was the candidate, I’d vote for him over anything the Dems have going other than Zell, plus his military career and current SecState service is admirable. Buuuut, what RepJ and kat mentioned rings true.

However, what’s not to like about Condi for POTUS? What Dem, male or female, White or Black could compare?

As for the race/gender factor, a simple retort to the naysayers; ‘Show me what you got‘.

Red & blue Obama? I don’t think so.
Ford? Not unless the Dems get a complete makeover after the current makeover.
Keyes? There’s room in the Condi admin for a policy wonk.

cHillary? I’d like to think, ‘Over my dead body’; but that’d be extremist hyperbolic and about as silly as the moonbats threatening to leave the US.
Moseley-Braun? Riiiiight.
Dole? There’s room in the Condi admin for a policy wonk.

Simply put, Condi strikes me as Reagan’s kindred over anyone else currently jockeying for 08 and beyond.

People talk about Cheney, but I think Condi is the key player that Bush relies on most.

Caveat, all bets are off should Queen La Shawn declare herself

Rice…maybe I am a “gut voter” but I like her ability to stay on topic, stay focused and not get rattled when they start throwing darts. She also appears to be able to “improvise, adapt and overcome”. A good mix. I’d love to see that as running for President.

It reminds me of a time when a liberal friend of mine (yes, he really was a friend) told me without the women’s movement I’d just be barefoot and pregnant. A conservative friend of mine, standing nearby, said not to let liberals cheapen my accomplishments by trying to take credit for what I did alone.

I remember awhile back, Paul Harvey did one of those “rest of the stories” about Powell. Now that I’ve given away the punchline, the suspense is gone, but the story basically was this: this man is in the military, fighting over in Vietnam, getting shot at day and night and living through pretty horrific circumstances. His wife, in the meantime, is back home in Alabama during the height of the racial tension and living with their children at her parents’ house. In his letters, he totally downplays the danger he’s in and emphasizes only the good, and that he loves her and the children and will come home soon. In her letters, she totally downplays the danger she’s in; at one point the front window to her father’s house is shot in and they have to hide in the cellar. She tells him none of this, and only emphasizes the good, like he does. It’s not until years after he’s home that the true stories really come out. What amazing, honourable people.

Glad you liked that silliness, Andy.

Did anyone see Byron York’s column? I’ll reprint it here (no link for it, sorry!), if Queen LaShawn says it’s okay:

Bush’s National Guard years

What do you really know about George W. Bush’s time in the Air National Guard? That he didn’t show up for duty in Alabama? That he missed a physical? That his daddy got him in?

News coverage of the president’s years in the Guard has tended to focus on one brief portion of that time — to the exclusion of virtually everything else. So just for the record, here, in full, is what Bush did:

The future president joined the Guard in May 1968. Almost immediately, he began an extended period of training. Six weeks of basic training. Fifty-three weeks of flight training. Twenty-one weeks of fighter-interceptor training.

That was 80 weeks to begin with, and there were other training periods thrown in as well. It was full-time work. By the time it was over, Bush had served nearly two years.

Not two years of weekends. Two years.

After training, Bush kept flying, racking up hundreds of hours in F-102 jets. As he did, he accumulated points toward his National Guard service requirements. At the time, guardsmen were required to accumulate a minimum of 50 points to meet their yearly obligation.

According to records released earlier this year, Bush earned 253 points in his first year, May 1968 to May 1969 (since he joined in May 1968, his service thereafter was measured on a May-to-May basis).

Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970. He earned 137 points in 1970-1971. He earned 112 points in 1971-1972. The numbers indicate that in his first four years, Bush not only showed up, he showed up a lot. Did you know that?

That brings the story to May 1972 — the time that has been the focus of so many news reports — when Bush “deserted” (according to anti-Bush filmmaker Michael Moore) or went “AWOL” (according to Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the
Democratic National Committee).

Bush asked for permission to go to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign. His superior officers said OK. Requests like that weren’t unusual, says retired Col. William Campenni, who flew with Bush in 1970 and 1971.

“In 1972, there was an enormous glut of pilots,” Campenni says. “The Vietnam War was winding down, and the Air Force was putting pilots in desk jobs. In ’72 or ’73, if you were a pilot, active or Guard, and you had an obligation and wanted to get out, no problem. In fact, you were helping them solve their problem.”

So Bush stopped flying. From May 1972 to May 1973, he earned just 56 points — not much, but enough to meet his requirement.

Then, in 1973, as Bush made plans to leave the Guard and go to Harvard Business School, he again started showing up frequently.

In June and July of 1973, he accumulated 56 points, enough to meet the minimum requirement for the 1973-1974 year.

Then, at his request, he was given permission to go. Bush received an honorable discharge after serving five years, four months and five days of his original six-year commitment. By that time, however, he had accumulated enough points in each year to cover six years of service.

During his service, Bush received high marks as a pilot.

A 1970 evaluation said Bush “clearly stands out as a top notch fighter interceptor pilot” and was “a natural leader whom his contemporaries look to for leadership.”

A 1971 evaluation called Bush “an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot” who “continually flies intercept missions with the unit to increase his proficiency even
further.” And a 1972 evaluation called Bush “an exceptional fighter interceptor pilot and officer.”

Now, it is only natural that news reports questioning Bush’s service — in The Boston Globe and The New York Times, on CBS and in other outlets — would come out now. Democrats are spitting mad over attacks on John Kerry’s
record by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

And, as it is with Kerry, it’s reasonable to look at a candidate’s entire record, including his military service — or lack of it. Voters are perfectly able to decide
whether it’s important or not in November.

The Kerry camp blames Bush for the Swift boat veterans’ attack, but anyone who has spent much time talking to the Swifties gets the sense that they are doing it entirely for their own reasons.

And it should be noted in passing that Kerry has personally questioned Bush’s service, while Bush has not personally questioned Kerry’s.

In April — before the Swift boat veterans had said a word — Kerry said Bush “has yet to explain to America whether or not, and tell the truth, about whether he showed up for duty.” Earlier, Kerry said, “Just because you get an honorable discharge does not, in fact, answer that question.”

Now, after the Swift boat episode, the spotlight has returned to Bush.

That’s fine. We should know as much as we can.

And perhaps someday Kerry will release more of his military records as well.

Byron York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears each week. E-mail: byork@thehill.com

I’m voting for Colin Powell.

CBS should be seriously investigating instead of trying to cover their behind.

Actus, point taken. But check this out; Jeff Harrell has finally resolved the Selectric Composer question http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/the_shape_of_days/2004/09/ — using a sample of text on a real, honest-to-goodness IBM SC. The coup de grâce comes at the end.

If that’s not enough for you, then maybe you should take a whack at winning the $10,500 reward for replicating the memo using the available technology of the day at http://defeatjohnjohn.com/2004/09/10000-part-two-ibm-selectric.htm. Go for it and prove Ra^ther’s point

ROTFL.

Conclusion: It was a hack job. Question is, by whom?
1) by a moonbat — shame on Ra^ther for accepting the docs at face value.
2) by Kerry’s oppo-research — twice the shame, both for CBS & Kedwards.
3) by Karl Rove — rope-a-dope hattrick, wiping out the credibility of CBS, Dems & leftyblogs in one move.

Which is curious since IBM advertised proportional spacing as early as 1941. This is all so odd.

Let’s keep up the scrutiny!