A week after Sen. Barack Obama delivered a hallmark address on race, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat down with an interview for the Washington Times.
Race relations in America, she said, stems from a national "birth defect" in the US constitution.
"Black Americans were a founding population," she told the Times. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded this country together — Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding."
"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she added.
Her comment is lighter than that recently delivered last week by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who dubbed slavery a "sin" and a "stain" on the constitution.
Speaking on the constitutional convention of 1787, Obama remarked, "The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Rice has recently been floated as a vice presidential possibility for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), although she says she's not interested in continuing in politics.
Washington insider and blogger Steve Clemons wrote that Rice spoke earlier this week to "Grover Norquist's weekly powerhouse gathering at Americans for Tax Reform of conservative associations, think tanks, and political operations," where "Republican political hopefuls migrate to to get the blessing of not only Norquist but the diverse parts of the nation's conservative money and political machinery."
In a follow-up post, Clemons wrote, "though saying she is not interested in the Vice Presidential slot on a McCain ticket, Condoleezza Rice might be convinced at some point to give up her near California dreams if "necessity" required it."
The Secretary of State has also used birth in other language -- applying it in 2006 to the Israeli attack on Lebanon.
"What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing -- the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East not going back to the old one," Rice said.
Rice declined to comment on the campaign, saying only that Obama's race speech was "important."
Miss Rice declined to comment on the campaign, saying only that it was "important" that Mr. Obama "gave it for a whole host of reasons."
"America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race," Rice added. "What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them — and that's our legacy," she said.
"Rice also said that what 'attracted' her to candidate George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign was not foreign policy, but his "no child left behind" initiative, which she said gave equal opportunities to black and white students," the paper said.
A week after Sen. Barack Obama delivered a hallmark address on race, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sat down with an interview for the