If Not America, Who?

Condoleeza Rice at The Southern Baptist Convention:

"We in America are blessed with lives of tremendous liberty: the freedom to govern ourselves and elect our leaders; the freedom to own property; the freedom to educate our children, our boys and our girls; and of course the freedom to think as we please and to worship as we wish. America embodies these liberties but America does not own these liberties. We stand for ideals that are greater than ourselves and we go into the world not to plunder but to protect, not to subjugate but to liberate, not as masters of others but as servants of freedom. (Applause.)"

Later...

"America will lead...America will lead the cause of freedom in our world, not because we think ourselves perfect. To the contrary, we cherish democracy and champion its ideals because we know ourselves to be imperfect. With a long history of failures and false starts that testify to our own fallibility, after all, when our Founding Fathers said "We the people", they didn't mean me. My ancestors in Mr. Jefferson's Constitution were three-fifths of a man. And it's only in my lifetime that America has guaranteed the right to vote for all our citizens. But we have made progress and we are striving toward a more perfect union."

Rice in '08? Rice in '12? Who cares. She can run anytime and get my vote!