{"id":22529,"date":"2010-10-17T23:57:36","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T05:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=22529"},"modified":"2010-10-18T15:25:33","modified_gmt":"2010-10-18T21:25:33","slug":"staying-above-the-fray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/10\/staying-above-the-fray\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying above the fray"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Condoleezza Rice<\/p><\/div>\n

Politics are dirty.\u00a0Everyone knows that.\u00a0Recall last week’s gubernatorial debacle in California wherein Jerry Brown’s camp was caught live calling Meg Whitman a “whore.” (Listen here<\/a>.) Classy.<\/p>\n

And then there was the “hick” ad<\/a> coming out of the West Virginia gubernatorial race. Double classy.<\/p>\n

And, yes, sometimes getting to good policy decisions can even be dirty. Start tracking bills in Congress or, for real entertainment, go peruse any of Bob Woodward’s tell-all, tattle-tale books.<\/p>\n

Given the nature of the political game, it’s surprising, atypical and refreshing all at once when you find those political types who are consistently\u00a0willing to stay above the fray. (Note that I specifically chose to use the word “willing” in the last sentence. When it’s all said and done,\u00a0every poltician or pundit in the limelight gets to choose whether she or he is going positive or defaulting to negative.)<\/p>\n

I was reminded this past week that positive still happens in politics. Enter former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice.\u00a0In case you hadn’t noticed, Dr. Rice has been out and about all over American radio and TV this past week launching her new book, Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family. <\/em>(No, I am not going to offer a book review in this post, but you can read a review here<\/a>. I would,\u00a0however,\u00a0encourage you to pick up a copy if you want a instant dose of inspiration.)<\/p>\n

In her many appearances this past week, from Morning Joe <\/em>to Jon Stewart <\/em>to The View <\/em>to The National Press Club, <\/em>Dr. Rice was a class act.\u00a0Despite attempts to snag her in interview after interview with questions that were ultimately set up to end in criticism of the current administration, she refused to stoop.\u00a0Instead, when asked, for example, about\u00a0the performance of her successor Secretary\u00a0Clinton on\u00a0The Today Show, <\/em>Rice gave a sincere nod and took a moment to reminisce about her first meeting with Secretary Clinton some 12 years ago at Stanford when Chelsea was entering as a freshman.<\/p>\n

In a more intimate discussion amongst friends at The Aspen Institute <\/em>this past Friday, Dr. Rice was asked about the Oval Office meeting with President Obama, which she had just rushed in from. Now, this was the perfect opportunity for some good Washington gossip, and I can say that we were all sitting on the edge of our seats hoping for just a little sarcasm or criticism to counter all of the Bush bashing that has been so prevalent as of late.<\/p>\n

No such luck.\u00a0In true Condi fashion, she was completely deferential toward President Obama and the course of his administration’s work on the international arena to date.\u00a0She spoke kindly and positively. She made you want to (almost) forget about the president’s harsh negativity toward the GOP in his recent stomps for 2010 congressional candidates. She made him likable.\u00a0(Disclosure: This should not have come to\u00a0a surpise to me – I’ve known\u00a0Dr. Rice for 11 years now, first as a boss and now as a friend and mentor, and have still yet\u00a0to hear a disbarraging comment come out of\u00a0her mouth.)<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, respectfullness and deference are winners. Call it good form or\u00a0purely good manners.\u00a0Either way,\u00a0staying above the fray can actually make for good politics.<\/p>\n

Sarah Lenti is the blogger behind NMPolitics.net\u2019s <\/em>The Savvy<\/em><\/a>. E-mail her at <\/em>sarah@nmpolitics.net<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reminded this past week by former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice that positive still happens in politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1196,181],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-22529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-the-savvy","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}