Missed signals.

The perfect Cowgirl for a "Maverick."

McCain: Not seeing signals from Rice One Republican strategist thinks Rice is actively campaigning to be McCain's No. 2. Posted: 01:15 PM ET

(CNN) — John McCain said Sunday night he hasn't personally seen signals Condoleezza Rice is interested in running as vice president, following a report the Secretary of State is angling for the No. 2 spot on the Republican presidential ticket. "I missed those signals," McCain told reporters on his campaign plane. "I think she’s a great American, I think there’s very little that I can say that isn’t anything but the utmost praise for a great American citizen, who served as a role model to so many millions of people in this country and around the world."

Funny what a quick google search of "Condoleezza Rice" and "missed signals" will tell you about the prospect of the Good Dr. being a potential VP pick...

Many Say U.S. Planned for Terror but Failed to Take Action

In 2000, after an Algerian was caught coming into the country with explosives, a secret White House review recommended a crackdown on "potential sleeper cells in the United States." That review warned that "the threat of attack remains high" and laid out a plan for fighting terrorism. But most of that plan remained undone. Last spring, when new threats surfaced, the Bush administration devised a new strategy, which officials said included a striking departure from previous policy — an extensive C.I.A. program to arm the Northern Alliance and other anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan. That new proposal had wound its way to the desk of the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and was ready to be delivered to the president for final approval on Monday, Sept. 10. The government's fight against terrorism always seemed to fall short. The Sept. 11 attack "was a systematic failure of the way this country protects itself," said James Woolsey, a former director of central intelligence. "It's aviation security delegated to the airlines, who did a lousy job. It's a fighter aircraft deployment failure. It's a foreign intelligence collection failure. It's a domestic detection failure. It's a visa and immigration policy failure."

Mag: Conservatives want 'incompetent' Condoleezza Rice transferred to advisory role

Claiming that President Bush's foreign policy agenda has been "hijacked," some prominent conservatives want the "incompetent" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice transferred to an advisory role, according to an article in a conservative magazine, RAW STORY has found. "Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda," reports Insight Magazine.

How The U.S. Missed The Clues

In August, it turns out, the President was briefed by the CIA on the possibility that al-Qaeda, the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden, might use hijacked airliners to win concessions from the U.S. Sources tell TIME that the briefing, which was first reported by CBS News, was in response to a request by Bush for detailed information on the kind of threat posed by al-Qaeda, not to American interests overseas — which had long preoccupied the spooks — but at home. During the period in which the brief was prepared, says a senior intelligence official, the CIA came to the conclusion that "al-Qaeda was determined to attack the U.S." After the strike came, White House sources concede, the Administration made a conscious decision not to disclose the August briefing, hoping that it would be discussed "in context"--and months later — when congressional investigations into the attacks eventually got under way. And that wasn't the only embarrassing paper kept under wraps. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported new details from a July 2001 memo by an FBI agent in Phoenix, Ariz., who presciently noted a pattern of Arab men signing up at flight schools. The agent, Kenneth Williams, 42, has spent 11 years working in an FBI antiterrorism task force. He recommended an investigation to determine whether al-Qaeda operatives were training at the schools. He was ignored, and after the existence of the memo became known, the FBI insisted that even if it had been acted upon, it would not have led to the detention of the Sept. 11 hijackers. (Only one of them, Hani Hanjour, had trained in Arizona, and did so before Williams focused on flight schools.) But sources tell TIME that at least one of the men Williams had under watch — a Muslim who has now left the U.S.--did indeed have al-Qaeda links. And Williams identified a second pair of suspected Islamic radicals now living in the U.S. as resident aliens, the sources say. They are currently under FBI surveillance. As if those missed signals weren't enough, last week it was also disclosed that in August, when the U.S. detained Zacarias Moussaoui — a man the French government knew was associated with Islamic extremists and who apparently wanted to learn to fly jumbo jets but not land them, and has since been charged with complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks — the FBI told nobody in the White House's Counterterrorism Security Group. But the csg, which comes under the aegis of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, is supposed to coordinate the government's response to terrorist threats.

A missed opportunity with Iran

In May 2003, shortly after the U.S. military destroyed the army of Saddam Hussein, a fax arrived at the State Department with an Iranian offer to open talks that would include a discussion of weapons of mass destruction. The one-page document was written by Sadegh Kharazi, Iran's ambassador to France and nephew of Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and passed on by the Swiss ambassador to Tehran, who represented U.S. interests in Iran, a former administration official said. The official, who saw the document, said it indicated that Iran wanted to negotiate a grand political bargain with the United States that would include everything from Iran's nuclear program to its support for groups that Washington regards as terrorist. "The Iranians acknowledged that WMD and support for terror were serious causes of concern for us, and they were willing to negotiate," said Flynt Leverett, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council who said he read the document. "The message had been approved by all the highest levels of authority. They wanted us to deal with sanctions, security guarantees, normalization of relations, and support for integration of Iran into the World Trade Organization." ... The administration's reluctance to enter into new talks with Iran was displayed by the president's State of the Union address in January 2002, where he labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea members of an "axis of evil." The administration set the goal of establishing a reformist democracy in Iran to replace the mullahs as well as to roll back Tehran's nuclear program. Bush has now stepped up his campaign for reformist democracy in Iran. During his last State of the Union address, he appealed to the people of Iran to "win their own freedom" and promised "one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran." Last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced an $85 million program to promote political change in Iran by subsidizing dissident groups and outside radio broadcasts.

(my emphasis added)

I could go on and on, but in my humble opinion, Condoleezza Rice is the perfect addition to this particular Presidential bid. Exactly the caliber of foreign policy expertise to meet the high standards set by John McCain.

Crossposted at Mccs1977

Comments

[Lisa]

"Exactly the caliber of foreign policy expertise to meet the high standards set by John McCain"

Despite Ms. Rice's estimable academic achievements, what she would add to the McCain campaign is color, to call a spade a spade.

[PoliShifter]

Well, she certainly supports McCain's bomb bomb Iran platform...but is she down with 100 years in Iraq? My guess is yes but maybe McCain is looking for confirmation first.

[Lisa]

And how much paint did you have to throw at Ms. Rice's furrowed brow to create that happy image? As with Mr. Cheney, I have never seen her smile when it did not appear menacing.

[Frederick]

The smile, unaltered, the hair on the other hand...she must have just returned from a Arab Women's Rights conference or something. Nothing will give burka hair or put a smile on a neo-con's face like one of those trips to access progress in the middle east.

[Lisa]

Yes, an Arab Women's Rights conference--to show them how little ladies do gunslinging, American style.

Of course, the Dale Evans look doesn't facilitate weapons transport as well as the duffle-bag burkha-look does.

[blogenfreude]

I'm so tired of the Condibot ... she's accomplished nothing in public life. Lots of dead bodies, sure, but what sort of accomplishment is that?

[lisa]

She's a great failure. She's a Cold War academic, and is out of her depth.

Like Colin Powell, a boot-licker who gave GWB the veneer of being multi-culti, meanwhile, the both of them have helped to leave this country a train wreck.

A shameful legacy.