It’s fascinating to watch Condoleeza Rice hit the ground running on the world diplomatic stage. This woman is no shirking violet [Three clichés in two sentences. Not bad, Simon. -ed. But wait. There’s more.] and has more intellectual horsepower [See!] than any US Sec’y of State since Henry the K. The extent to which she is micromanaging the forthcoming Sharon-Abbas summit we may never know, but she is smart enough to know that the more the two parties seem to be working things out for themselves, the more likely a successful result.
Meanwhile, I was amused to read that some are floating a Russ Feingold/Rice presidential election in ’08. Nice thought. But I imagine if Ms. Rice, by some minor miracle, pulls off something even faintly resembling a permanent resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during her four years at State, it’s going to be “Russ who?” [Isn’t it already?-ed. I guess.]
UPATE: Some, undoubtedly, will be opposing Rice in ’08.