16 days from now, HISTORY will be made...

[Coyote]

I think it would be sweet justice if the Dems nominated Hilary Clinton-- and the Reps put up Condie Rice against her.

In turth, we're more likely to see a Conservative Black Man before we see a woman of any stripe in the WH. It'll be awhile for society to get around that, for some reason.

[paladin]

It's possible the "20 year curse" will strike both George B. and Dick C., landing Colin Powell in the President's seat.

If both the President and Vice President died, wouldn't the Speaker of the House fill in, and then the Attorney General?

The President pro tempore of the Senate comes after the Speaker of the House.

[phongn]

Rumours abound that Condeleeza Rice is being groomed for VP in 2004 and POTUS in 2008.

[Alex Moon]

Rumours abound that Condeleeza Rice is being groomed for VP in 2004 and POTUS in 2008.

Condi Rice vs. Hillary Clinton would be one hell of a campaign.

[Perinquus]

He doesn't. He's out as majority leader. And historically the Democrats do have a demonstrably worse record of supporting civil rights legislation.

How strange, then, that the vast majority of those Southern voters, formerly democrats, who opposed civil rights switched to the Republican party. I guess the people who cite the out-of-date Democratic party voting trends never heard of the "Southern Strategy."

That is, quite simply, a completely untrue statement. Most of the Dixiecrats did not become Republicans shortly after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Quite the opposite, in fact. Richard Russell, Mendell Rivers, Clinton's mentor William Fulbright, Robert Byrd, Fritz Hollings and Al Gore Sr. remained Democrats till their dying day. In fact, most of the Dixiecrats created the Dixiecrats party and then, when the civil rights movement succeeded, they returned to the Democratic fold. It was not till much later, with a new, younger breed of Southerner and the thousands of Northerners moving into the South, that Republicans began to make gains. In 1970, the Democratic Party had a total lock on Georgia. Newt Gingrich was one of the first "outsiders" to break that lock. He did so in a West Georgia area into which many Northerners were moving. He gained the support of rural West Georgians over issues that had absolutely nothing to do with race.

In fact, very few party switches came about right after the Civil Rights Act was passed. Some exceptions who did switch were Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms.

Southern whites are switching parties these days because Southern Democrats are mostly conservative on other issues, and the Republican party is more conservative than the Democrats. After the Democratic party lurched very sharply to the left in the late 60s and early 70s, they moved over to the Repubicans because they no longer had much in common, ideologically speaking, with the rest of the Democratic party.

But the fact that Republicans have more often favored civil rights issues is a matter of historical record. Ever since the days of Lincoln, Republicans have had a more positive record on civil rights than the Democrats. In the 26 major civil rights votes after 1933 (when civil rights matters again started becoming a major issue, for the first time since Reconstruction), a majority of Democrats opposed civil rights legislation in over 80 percent of the votes. By contrast, the Republican majority favored civil rights in over 96 percent of the votes.

[See http://www.congresslink.org/civil/essay.html and http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/un ... .04.x.html.]

[Perinquus]

Dammit! The Yale link is out of date. Still, the historical record is clear, and you can no doubt find the results at any number of sources. By all means, don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

There are indeed rumours of Rice in '04 for Veep, and then in turn the Presidential nomination in '08 for the Republican party. Alternatively, if Powell steps down as SecState, as is possible due to his differences with the administration, she could run directly out of the SecState position (As she would probably take over for him). This is not without precedent, as Howard Taft actually won the Presidency straight out of the SecWar position on the strength of Teddy Roosevelt's presidency.

In addition to the rumours, there is also a bit of a grassroots campaign at the same time for that nomination. Certainly, there is more possibility with Lott gone from the Senate Majority Leader position, and the Dixiecrat wing of the party severely weakened in the midterms and now dieing fast.