Condoleezza Rice suggested as next UA Chancellor

By: @LivingCrimson

Dr. Mack Portera announced Monday he was stepping down as UA Chancellor. A member of the Alabama House of Representatives quickly moved to suggest Condoleezza Rice as a prestigious replacement.

Dr. Rice is originally from Birmingham but spent her middle school and high school years in Tuscaloosa, where her father the Rev. John Rice took a position at Stillman College and her mother was a teacher at Druid High School. She maintains strong ties in the State of Alabama even though her college education and career were spent far away from Alabama. During George Bush’s presidential campaign, she even named a political group The Vulcans in honor of the ideals embodied in the great strides made in Birmingham public policy.

She continues to be a supporter of The University of Alabama, as well as an avid fan of Crimson Tide football. In her book, “Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me,” she spends a couple of chapters on her time in T-Town including stories of attending Bama football games, and the University speakers series where she met the famous politicians of her time.

According to Mark Schlabach, her father had been a coach as a young man. Father and daughter played football in the yard. Even before moving to Tuscaloosa, they listened to Bear Bryant's Alabama teams on the radio. She loves to tell stories of attending recent Bama games, including tossing the coin at Bryant-Denny Stadium for the opening of the huge rivalry game with Tennessee. This past season, Rice even attended the Alabama-LSU game on November 5th and predicted a win for the Tide.

As former Secretary of State, politics doesn’t want to let her go though. Despite her denials, Rice continues to be mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. She remains firm in her commitment to the educational and public policy establishment rather than returning to politics. In fact, her ultimate goal is to be the NFL Commissioner.

It would be indeed be a coup if the University of Alabama system could entice Dr. Rice back to Alabama.

 

 

More Bama updates on Twitter @LivingCrimson.

In politics, perception is everything

If money is the mother's milk of politics, perception is the stern glare of the father.  The last several months have not been kind to Democrats, and the plight they're in is one of their own making.

Nothing demonstrates a failure to appreciate how perception affects voters like the Obamas' vacation to Maine in July and Mrs. Obama's lavish, six-day excursion to the ritzy, glitzy Mediterranean coast of Spain which ended Sunday.  Mrs. Obama arrived back at the White House south lawn just in time to enjoy some grilled Gulf shrimp.  That shrimp must have come from Tampa or South Padre, because it sure didn't come out of the waters of the northern Gulf Coast.

While ordinary Americans across the country are tightening their belts--and while some residents of the Gulf Coast are literally gasping for air--the Obama's are living the high life.  They're hanging with rock stars.  They're shooting hoops with superstars.  They're closing down whole national parks and cordoning off big stretches of beach so they can enjoy the spoils of power.

While the economy is bleeding jobs, growth was slowing and the Macondo well was spewing crude into the Gulf, el Presidente enjoyed more rounds of in a couple of months than I've played all year.  At the rate he's playing, he's probably gotten good enough to have beaten Tiger Woods at Firestone last weekend.

Mrs. Obama's trip to Spain--which included lavish accommodations at an exclusive resort and dining with Spanish royalty--led the NY Daily News' Andrea Tantaros to compare the First Lady to Marie Antoinette, the famously callous French queen of Louis XIV.

Making matters even worse for the ruling class--not one, not two, but three prominent Democrats are in hot water over alleged ethics violations.  The Rangel case by itself isn't likely to cause someone to say, "you know, Rangel is a crook, so I'm voting Republican."  Neither would the Waters case by itself, or the Manchin case by itself.  But to have all three come sloshing ashore at the same time, mere months away from an election already seething with anti-incumbent fervor...

To dyed-in-the-wool conservatives and newly aroused Tea Party activists, this kind of stuff doesn't do much.  Their Crap-o-Meters have been pegged in the red since that awful Sunday in March.  And dyed-in-the wool liberals are just fine with comparing Michelle Obama's Spanish flair to Laura Bush's visit to Africa; and Dems' ethics problems to a decades-old scandal with Newt Gingrich. What stuff like this does is to get under the skin of moderates and swing voters, a group of people not normally counted on to turn out for midterm elections.  But if the Obama regime keeps up the aloof, detached air of royalty, November 3 will be a heady morning for Democrats.


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