In the middle of the newest issue of Vogue, on page 506, is a glowing profile that is perhaps just as nauseating as the strong scent emanating from the magazine’s free sample of Guess Girl perfume. Ladies and gentleman, meet “The Comeback Queen,” Susan Rice.
Susan Rice, the outgoing ambassador to the United Nations, is changing into something festive. It’s a warm evening in June, and guests are assembling for a party she’s throwing in honor of LGBT Pride Month at the penthouse of the Waldorf Towers, the official residence of the U.N. Ambassador.
Thus beams the charming introduction of the new national security adviser. The author of the piece, Jason Horowitz, goes on to gush about Rice’s outfit and her “warmer side.” Horowitz then breezes over the fact Rice repeatedly spewed false talking points that the attack in Benghazi was in response to an anti-Muslim YouTube video, before getting to the real issue -- Republicans are bullies.
Rice herself quickly became Republican shorthand for Obama-administration deceit, naivete, and everything else they could pack into a sound bite. Republicans, led by Senator John McCain -- perhaps mindful that Rice had mocked him during the 2008 campaign for “strolling around the market in a flak jacket” -- made it clear they would block any attempt to promote her to Secretary of State.
By making Rice out to be the victim in the Benghazi scandal and John McCain the big bad ogre, Horowitz ignores the shameful way Rice and the Obama administration misled the American public in the last months before the 2012 presidential election. Instead of calling the organized terrorist attack in Benghazi what it was, Rice and her colleagues claimed it was a spontaneous act. Yet, Horowitz insists Rice is the innocent party in this story.
Rice’s temper is her calling card. And while she suffers from the double standard that unfairly attends strong-willed women in politics and policy circles, it’s remarkable how often the word abrasive pops up in conversations about her.
The piece ends with a flattering description of Rice’s speech At the UN Correspondents Association annual ball in December:
She kept her head down, and her hard work, discretion, and loyalty to a president who keeps his inner circle tight has now been rewarded. It’s a testament of how far back from the political dead Rice has come that when I ask her about her childhood ambition of being a United States senator, she replies, “I wouldn’t rule it out."
By featuring both Wendy Davis and Susan Rice in their epic Fall issue, it's obvious Vogue’s idea of fashion "rules out" conservative women. It's much more posh to profile controversial Democratic women.
