45 min Trafficking press brief from June and etc...

I am going to miss Condi...
I know many have mixed feelings, but she is articulate and means well. Ans heck she works for the State Department....

I watched this today...

and pulled this from the transcript... she choked me up a little.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, as the conventions get closer, have you been vetted as Senator McCain's VP yet? (Applause.)

SECRETARY RICE: No. I don't need another job in government. I really don't. (Laughter.) I just have to tell you, there's something to be said for fresh blood. The - Senator McCain is a tremendous patriot. He would make a wonderful president. He has a great array of people who can serve as Vice President, and I'm sure he'll make a good choice.

But I also know that - well, two things. First of all, I didn't run for President of my high school council. I have a lot of admiration for people who do that; I'm probably not one of them. And secondly, I'm quite serious about new blood. It - this has been the greatest experience of my life, and I think Madeleine can probably tell you - George Shultz told me once, Madeleine, there's no better job than Secretary of State. And he was right about that, because you get to travel and represent this great country. And I love this country. This country is extraordinary. (Applause.)

You know, as you go around the world, you realize that what is admired about America - I fully admit, they may - people may not always like our policy. But what's admired about America, deep down inside, is that this is a country that brings people and attracts people from every walk of life, from every country in the world, from every color, from every nationality. And we live here, not just tolerating each other, but thriving together. And in a world in which difference is still a license to kill, that's just really extraordinary.

And moreover, it is also a country where, for the most part, it really doesn't matter where you came from; it matters where you're going. Circumstances don't have to be an impediment to success. (Applause.)

So when I go back, I really - and I will go back. I belong west of the Mississippi, and being here has reminded me of that. When I go back, I really will spend some time thinking about and worrying about and being concerned about, frankly, some of the things that kept me going before I came. Those are what I'll call the fundamentals of America's strengths - our need to continue to attract people from all over the world and to integrate them here. I'm deeply worried about our immigration policies. I think we will do ourselves great harm if we start closing ourselves off .

I will - (applause) - I will go back and I will be very concerned about the state of education in this country. Because you know, what holds us together is the multi-ethnic - (applause). What holds us together as a multi-ethnic democracy is that if you're not doing all that well, you really do believe your children will.

And every country in the world has a national myth. And a myth is not something that isn't true. It is a way of defining yourself. It's a way of thinking about who you are. It's a tradition, an oral tradition. And ours is the log cabin, that you can grow up in a log cabin and you can be President. And you know, for so many Americans, that has been, in fact, the case. When I stand in front of a Stanford class and right there is a Stanford fourth-generation legatee, and the next kid next to him is an itinerant farm worker's son, then I know we're doing this right. And I worry that if we don't do something more about the state of public education, about higher standards for our children, about not warehousing these kids who can't read. You know, if I have any envy of anybody, it's my colleague Margaret Spellings, because she gets to get up every day and think about those issues.

We've got to get this right, and right now it's not right. And ultimately, if the United States of America is not confident in its fundamentals, its ability to integrate people's from all over the world, and the log cabin myth that is, in fact, true -- if we're not confident of that, we're not going to lead. We're going to turn inward. We're going to be fearful. We're going to be protectionist. We're going to shut other people out. And that will be a tremendous, tremendous danger for the world. So that's what I care about these days.

(Applause.)