THE REAL REASON WHY SUSAN RICE ASKED OBAMA NOT TO NOMINATE HER AS SECRETARY OF STATE

In withdrawing her name from being nominated as Secretary of State, Susan Rice sent this letter to the President:

“It has been and remains my highest professional privilege to serve as your United Nations ambassador. I am deeply grateful for your steadfast support for all we do at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. and for my dedicated colleagues. Your vision and leadership have enabled the U.S. to restore our global standing, strengthen our national security, repair our relationship with the United Nations, and advance U.S. interests and values. I am proud of the many U.S. successes at the United Nations, including the protection of civilians from Libya to Cote D'Ivoire, strengthening the nuclear non-proliferation regime and increasing international pressure on Iran and North Korea through the toughest sanctions ever, our unwavering support for Israel, our contribution to the birth of the world's newest state, South Sudan, accelerating U.N. reform, and our bold defense of the equal rights of all human beings regardless of their race, religion, economic status or whom they love. I look forward to building on this major progress in your second term.

I am highly honored to be considered by you for appointment as secretary of state. I am fully confident that I could serve our country ably and effectively in that role. However, if nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy disruptive and costly— to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities. That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country. It is far more important that we devote precious legislative hours and energy to enacting your core goals, including comprehensive immigration reform, balanced deficit reduction, job creation, and maintaining a robust national defense and effective U.S. global leadership. Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time.

The position of secretary of state should never be politicized. As someone who grew up in an era of comparative bipartisanship and as a sitting U.S. national security official who has served in two U.S. administrations, I am saddened that we have reached this point, even before you have decided whom to nominate. We cannot afford such an irresponsible distraction from the most pressing issues facing the American people.

I am grateful, as always, for your unwavering confidence in me and, especially, for your extraordinary personal support during these past several weeks. I look forward to continuing to serve you and our great country with enthusiasm and pride as U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and as a member of your Cabinet and National Security Council.”

In accepting her withdrawal, President Obama said, "While I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character."

What a load of crap! Rice didn’t withdraw her name and the president didn’t accept her withdrawal because “the confirmation process would be lengthy disruptive and costly” to the president.

The real reason Rice withdrew and the president accepted her withdrawal is because both had come to the realization that, with the strong opposition of Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte, her chances of winning Senate approval were slim to none, with the emphasis on none.

Because she had a long history of siding with the Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before she ever joined the Obama team, I do not applaud Rice for removing herself from the nomination process - I applaud Senators McCain, Graham and Ayotte.