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I served as @AmbassadorRice's Special Assistant during the first 1 1/2 years of the Obama administration. Kind of like a slightly more substantive Gary from Veep. Here’s a short Tweetstorm about why I believe she would make a strong VP choice.
By the way, no one from the Rice camp asked me to share anything, and I have zero interest in heading back to DC to work in an administration. I just felt the need to share my experience working for and observing her.
When she was in NYC, I was with her most of the time, attended almost every meeting she had, and traveled with her to Iraq and Israel. There are few, if any, people who observed her more at the UN more during that stretch.
So, what is she like? Most notably, she’s VERY tough. Few people will describe her as “nice," but I don’t know many who would say she’s unfair either. She’s like Nick Saban, Pat Summit, or Bill Belichick. Demanding, competent, and consistent. No bullshit.
GOP is going after her bedside manner, but I see her toughness as an asset. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in a meeting with her where she’s intimidated the shit out of some country who needed it. She was the alpha in Security Council negotiations filled with sharks.
Being tough is not the same as being stubborn or mean. She’s incredibly solicitous of input. She would routinely go around the horn and ask everyone to weigh in - and she would actually listen and often (or usually) change her mind based on input.
She understands how government works and is a master at taming the bureaucracy. She ran circles around appointees who were new to government.
She was a savant of the interagency processes and knew exactly what she needed to do to get what she needed accomplished. Sometimes, I would need a translator just to decipher what she was asking me to do, given the blitz of acronyms, departments, and agencies.
She works HARD. She balanced family and NSC life in DC with diplomatic demands of USUN. Despite that, she worked harder than anyone in the building. She would routinely send aides like me home while she stayed at her office and reviewed briefings and cleared decisions.
She seemed to know everyone’s name and contribution both inside the building and the larger UN world. When we had our monthly USUN town halls, she would shout people out in every department for their work.
And when we walked the halls of the UN, she seemed to know everyone’s name and history - down to more working level diplomats from all kinds of country’s.
She treated the security detail, drivers, and Ambassador’s residence staff with incredible respect. I spent most of my time with these non-policy staff and they loved her. When they would have to rotate off her detail, they would get distraught.
Finally, I know the GOP is fixing to go after her on Benghazi, but despite that fact that she was cleared of any wrongdoing there, this is the fight we want. Let’s talk about patriotism and national security.
Let’s talk about Ukraine, Bountygate, and the myriad ways our President has put himself above the country’s interest — and put us all in danger.
That's it. Excuse the typos. Gotta run to a meeting but wanted to put this out into the world in case Uncle Joe is listening.
