Oh come now!

I realize that we all celebrate the rags-to-riches aspect of the American dream, but I am sick of seeing Condoleeza Rice described as "a poor Alabama cotton farmer's granddaughter" (from today's NYT, but it's been done repeatedly). That's like describing me as an illiterate Italian railroad laborer's granddaughter. It's certainly true, but it's not the key defining element of my life, nor her's either, I'd wager. Just makes good copy.

Besides that, I'm worried about where her rise to Secretary of State will take us. She and the prez are of one mind: imagine how aggressive our foreign policy is going to be minus the somewhat moderating effect of Powell (I do think that he wasn't so firmly against U.S. policy as some would like to believe). Also disturbing is that her deputy, Stephen Hadley, is going to be the new NSC. That guy is a solid neocon. So much for a free discourse of ideas.