Gerald Herbert/AP
Susan Rice learns what it's really like to be Hillary
Sure, everyone loves Clinton now. But first she had to survive a decade and a half of right-wing attacks.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice has withdrawn her name from consideration for nomination to be secretary of state. "If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly," she said in a letter formally taking herself out of consideration.
And with that admission, the woman who would succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state has revealed she's gotten just a small taste of what it actually has been like to be Hillary Clinton over the years.
Rice, like Clinton before her, has been attacked relentlessly by the GOP for what she's said, for her temperament, and over her financial ties; she's been attacked by left and right alike for her foreign-policy views (the criticism of Rice's ties to African despots has been nothing compared to the intra-party criticism Clinton got for backing the authorization of military use force in Iraq, launching Bush's war there); and she's been denied an upsurge of support from her party just when she positioned herself or her ideas as most inevitable (from Hillarycare to the 2008 presidential contest, Clinton's never been so vulnerable as when she's been inevitable). Like Clinton, Rice also has been subjected to a steady stream of rough questioning in the MSM and excoriated on Fox. But unlike Clinton, Rice has experienced all of this only on a small scale and for a only few months.