It may be unfair (I will freely admit that) but there's something about Condoleezza Rice that has always put me off. Perhaps it's her hard-line conservative stance on most issues...perhaps it's the imperious, often-condescending way she speaks in public (she may be the sweetest person in the world in her private life but her public persona is frosty, smug, and inflexible)...or maybe it's just the fact that there is no laughter...not even the hint of a genuine smile...in her eyes.
Having her replace the (relatively)moderate, if decidedly outnumbered and therefore ineffectual, Colin Powell as Secretary of State signals that the Bush Administration has fully committed to the "our-way-or-the-highway" mode of foreign policy for its second term.
The President's "compassionate conservative" affectations are put into their proper context when you see whom he has chosen to be his most trusted...and listened to...advisors (Dr. Rice, Vice President Cheney, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld are definitely all archly conservative but "compassionate" isn't the first thing that comes to mind about any of them when it comes to public policy.) The President may give lip service to reaching out to our (increasingly former) allies around the world but he's chosen people who strongly support unilateral and uncompromising uses of American power (both political and military) in the cause of making over the world in the image they think it should have.
The next four years are going to be...interesting (in the vein of the ancient Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times")...and the ramifications will be felt for years...and probably decades... after the George W. Bush Administration is over.
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