Rice 2008

"The Egyptian Government must fulfill the promise it has made to its people--and to the entire world--by giving its citizens the freedom to choose. Egypt's elections, including the Parliamentary elections, must meet objective standards that define every free election."--Condoleezza Rice, speaking Monday at the American University, Cairo

Ever since President Bush settled on a policy of promoting democracy in the Middle East, he has been repeatedly lambasted for his alleged hypocrisy: Why advocate democracy for Iraq and Lebanon, say the critics, but not for autocratic U.S. allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia? In this telling, "democracy" is said to be just an alibi for the pursuit of narrow U.S. interests, especially a steady supply of oil.

Well, so much for that view. On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to Cairo and then Riyadh and, in soft tones, delivered a stark message: America would no longer pursue "stability at the expense of democracy." The U.S. will now notice when peaceful Egyptian protestors are brutalized by government security goons, or when Saudi citizens are imprisoned for "peacefully petitioning the government"; and the future of both countries as American allies rests on the seriousness of their commitment to democratic reform.

I will think about sending this to my friend who sends me all the MoveOn.org conspiracies and anti-Bush editorials. We'll see.

But today's WSJ shakes my endorsement theory quite a bit. First, the first page reminds that Senators McCain and Chafee have opposed eliminating the "death tax" (The deficit, you know) and the Ed Page leads with Secretary Rice's barnstorming the MidEast as the Sharansky disciple she is. And she would never, ever, ever find herself paired with a Lincioln Chafee in a news story.

Rice 2008. If there's no chance of drafting her, McCain.

Freedom on the March Posted by jk at June 22, 2005 11:02 AM