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Rice and the Numbers: It Doesn't Add Up

William Montgomery

I caught part of Condoleezza Rice's interview on Meet the Press this past Sunday, and her performance was absolutely abysmal. Before I say that I'm ashamed to have her as our Secretary of State, well, let me say that first. I'm ashamed to have Rice as out Secretary of State. She's absolutely full of it, and Sunday's showing was enough to let us know she's still at the top of her game. What do foreign leaders think when they have to talk to her? Hopefully, they don't think too much of what she has to say at all.

But to get back to the Meet the Press interview, Tim Russert started off discussing with Iraq and Rice got right to her agenda of wasting our time. She said nothing of significance for a few minutes, blabbering on in the same vein as the rest of the administration, not really getting at any of the issues Russert was talking about. But then Timmy, old boy, Timmy, comes through and pulls out some numbers. 58% of Americans want US troop levels reduced.

What does Rice retort with? Well, she rambles on about how the process is long and hard and how we just had to do it, just had to go to Iraq. She never really says what for; weapons, Saddam, oil, terror, but I guess it's hard to pin it down when the reasons are always changing. She's got nothing. It was purely pathetic, and I could see on Russert's face the typical expression of exasperation and yet at the same time, the comfort in getting exactly what he expected. Don't get me wrong, election night 2000, Russert with the little boards and markers doing the math was the highlight of his career, no doubt. I don't watch his shows on any regular basis either, but he seemed OK to me, there were something coming through the set; he knew he was being taken for a ruse. I reckon that's his job, after all.

Alright, Timmy thought, time for the big guns. Here comes the big one. "Let me ask you a couple of questions, domestic questions." ¹ Bush's approval rating is at 39% overall. It's hard to believe it was only a year ago when he had over 50%. Anyway, Bush is at 39%, which is piss poor for any President if you ask me. But I had known that one already; that wasn't a surprise. Tim then leveled me, and presumably Rice, too, with the next statistic, Bush's approval among African Americans. Want to take a guess? Even a stab in the dark?

Two percent. Two out of a hundred. One out of fifty. That's it. 84% disapprove of Bush, and no one really knows about the other 14%. Maybe they're all from New Orleans and a little too busy for a quick telephone interview at the moment. Who knows? But two fucking percent! That's believable, on one hand, but still amazing that it's the fact of the matter on the other.

Condi comes back saying she's a "social scientist" and needs to see the poll before she makes any comments.² Sure, if we asked every African-American of their opinion of the President, the number probably wouldn't be two percent. But political research has come a long way, and we're long past Truman-Dewey and Landon-Roosevelt. There's no way that that number is significantly off. It can't be; the war, the hurricane response, Republican policies, continuing urban decline: this list goes on forever.

Even if the margin of error for the poll was ten percent, although I'm realistically assuming it to be either three or five percent, we could say the range of African-American support for Bush ranges from -8 to 12 percent. OK, that was admittedly a little silly. However, a more recent study from Pew research, with a larger sample, actually puts the African-American approval at 12%.³ Regardless, the racial backlash against Bush is growing and numbers like this only serve to provoke that divide.

The Secretary of State had a great opportunity to defend her boss and give some examples of how Bush has served the black community of our country. But she couldn't. For starters, he's done jack shit in that department, and Condi knew, especially after Katrina, Russert'd laugh her off the air if she tried to fabricate something. And secondly, it isn't her style. She'd rather babble on about social science and polls, a valid concern, mind you, but not a fitting one for a discussion of this sort through this medium. Well, what am I saying? TV was invented for its bullshit potential. I remember Howard Dean's old campaign manager speaking at my school, discussion Nixon's infamous "Checkers" speech. Joe Trippi then concluded, "and bullshit now had its own medium."

Maybe I was expecting too much of Rice. I was expecting something. I had a few good laughs though, but they weren't very good ones because this isn't funny. A huge portion of our society feels alienated by the President, and rightly so. Maybe through this we can achieve a better racial situation in America, but the riots in Ohio that occurred the day before makes this look impossible. Less than twenty percent of African-Americans support their President, assuredly. And what does 'support' mean? There isn't any significant Kanye West effect here either; these numbers have been in the area of 15% for a while. If you didn't already know, something is terribly wrong and seemingly about to get much worse.

Getting back to my school, (see how it all comes together?) rumor had it in the spring of 2004 that Ms. Rice was going to be our commencement speaker. Only a freshman, I didn't care all that much, but I remember the controversy. I don't really know how all of this works, or even if it's true, but it's a good story nonetheless. Faculty, I guess, have some sort of veto power over the choice of the graduation lecturer, and it was made clear by a number of professors that they did not want Rice to come and brainwash our little pea-brains. Consequently, Rice was kicked off the bill (if she was even on it to begin with.) and another windbag was selected, much to the chagrin of the right-leaning undergrads and teachers.

After watching Meet the Press, I don't think I would've been brainwashed had Rice come to Lancaster on some sunny May afternoon. I would've fallen asleep. It must be something about bullshit artists that just does it to me.

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William Montgomery 20, is a junior at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, and a registered Independent. He can be reached at william.montgomery@fandm.edu.

Notes:

1. Find the transcript of the interview online at: link 2.This link provides some analysis and a link to the study itself: link.

3. Again, please see the Washington Post link.