MR. RUSSERT: Here's a number I would like to share with you as the ranking African-American in the Cabinet, Madam Secretary. Approve, 2 percent, disapprove, 84 percent. How troubling is that to you that only 2 percent of African-Americans say that George Bush is doing a good job as president?
SEC'Y RICE: Well, Tim, I don't know what to make of the polls, and I'm not myself one who tends to put much faith in polls, and what questions are asked and how they're asked. What I do know is that this has been a president who has gone out of his way to be inclusive, not just in his Cabinet and not just in everything that he has done, but who has cared deeply about the progress of African-Americans.
MR. RUSSERT: Why do only 2 percent of African-Americans agree with you?
SEC'Y RICE: Tim, I'm a social scientist and until I see a poll and how its questions are asked and what the assumptions are, I'm not going to comment on a poll of that kind. I am simply telling you that this president has an extraordinary record with African-Americans. After all, when you look--when I come, as I am here now in London and I've been in Moscow and I've been in Paris and I've been in Central Asia, I represent the United States government. But I represent something else. I represent the fact that the United States of America is a multicultural and multiethnic society in which we are finally coming to terms with a history in which not all Americans were always represented. And so, I think, as an African-American secretary of state, that's special. And by the way, the last secretary of state was also African-American, both appointed by this president. This president's Cabinet is more representative, looks more like America, than any Cabinet, really, in our history. So this president should--holds a candle to anyone in his devotion to issues about minorities and into his ability to--without even a hint of tokenism, to fully take advantage of the talents of all Americans regardless of race or ethnicity.
