Quote Of The Day: Rice Warns Against Planning For Possibility Of Failure

[ProSense]

Quote Of The Day: Rice Warns Against Planning For Possibility Of Failure

By Greg Sargent | bio

"It's bad policy to speculate on what you'll do if a plan fails when you're trying to make a plan work."

-- Condoleezza Rice, quoted in The Washington Post speaking at today's hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (special thanks to TPM Reader SW for the tip)

[notadmblnd]

1. it's all so clear to me now..

It's bad luck to have a Plan B. :sarcasm:

[wordpix]

2. " it all depends on what the definition of 'failure' is" is what she should have said

no "possibility" about it

[peacetalksforall]

3. Having only one plan is why we're in this disastrous mess. nt

[RDANGELO]

4. No Condi, that means you are incompetent, n/t

[Imagevision]

5. Yes but Rice baby!! the fu*cking plan has already failed 5 bloody times love!!

[ninkasi]

6. Is that something like

not catching Osama is just a success that hasn't happened yet? Calling Red Queen to explain, please...Red Queen, pick up the phone...

[NastyRiffraff]

7. Condi...hon...

it's called a "contingency plan" You know, in case something goes wrong?

[Guaranteed]

8. Yeah. It's like, if you get life insurance, you're just not committed to

not dying.

[underpants]

9. Quiet! You'll hurt the plan's feelings!

what was the quote about not getting Osama being not a failure but a success not yet achieved...something like that.

[displacedtexan]

10. So why are repukes always demanding a plan from Dems?

[gratuitous]

11. More magical thinking

This administration is awash in magical thinking. The first chapter of Genesis isn't just an interesting story for these people, it's the literal truth. God calls creation into being through a mere word. "God said" this or that, and this or that became real. In this administration, if you say something, you call it into being, and so if you say that "if this doesn't work, we'll try that," it means that you're calling your failure into existence. You've failed already if you admit the possibility of failure.

Read what Bush says through this prism: He never ever talks about an actual failure. Everything is contingencies and potentials, never reality, when he's talking about things not panning out quite the way he thought. And the way to make a failure go away is to utter more magical words: I take full responsibility for {whatever}. That doesn't mean he learned any lesson, it doesn't mean he's going to do anything differently; he takes responsibility.

I saw a kid on a playground push another kid off a swing. As the first kid ran away, laughing, he hollered, "I'm sorry." When the teacher finally ran the kid down to confront him for pushing the other kid off the swing, the offending kid was truly puzzled. As far as he was concerned, he'd said the magic words "I'm sorry," so whatever he'd done was over in his mind. The other kid still had a scraped chin and was covered in dirt, but the magic words had been uttered. The offending kid didn't much like having to offer a real apology, face-to-face, and really didn't like losing privileges for a while afterwards, but you'd like to think that that six-year-old boy learned a lesson. I hold out less hope for this president and his administration.

[Doctor_J]

12. I guess I'll stop wearing my seat belt when I drive and my helmet when I bike

I always plan on a smooth trip, so it would be bad policy to speculate on what I'll do if the trip isn't smooth.

These people are as stupid and incompetent as they are corrupt.