Why Rice's Expressed Disinterest in Running for President Really is Disinterest in Running for President

Ann Althouse is parsing a new statement by Condoleezza Rice, in which the Secretary of State expresses zero interest in running for President. But Althouse claims to see in it reason to believe that Rice will be a candidate.

I left a comment at Althouse's site:

I think that you're engaging in eisegesis rather than exegesis of Rice's statement. [Eisegesis is, in effect, reading into words what we want to see. Exegesis is extracting from words their actual intended meaning.]

Yes, the "I know what I'm good at..." phrase is in the present tense. But it's referent isn't the outside world, it's to herself. She knows what she's good at doing. She knows her talents and her interests.

She also knows her limitations. That's probably what comes through most clearly to me in her statement. As a devoted Christian, Rice knows well and takes seriously Paul's admonition in Romans 12:

"...by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned."

Paul isn't calling Christians to self-abasement, but to liberation. Once one understands what one's gifts and abilities are, it frees a person from scurrying down other person's pathways. The siren's call of acclaim has led many a person to take up tasks that had nothing to do with their gifts, skill sets, or passions. For whatever strengths or deficiencies she may have as a policy-maker, Rice appears to be spiritually mature enough to recognize that running for political office isn't her thing.

As an old pol myself and as one trained to be a History teacher, I've talked about the prospects of a Rice presidential candidacy several times. In those posts, I haven't even looked at the religious angle, which I think plays a powerful role in Rice's approach to life. Here are the URLS for two of those pieces:

Condoleezza Rice for President?

Will Condi Be Nominated by the GOP in 2008? I Don't Think So, But Not for the Reasons You Might Think

[Notice that each of these posts has been incited by Althouse touting Rice as a presidential contender.]