More ignorance

Condoleezza Rice, a woman who is surprised by everything, said (or here), following the Hamas win:

“I don't know anyone who wasn't caught off guard by its very strong showing.”

Yet a State Department poll taken days before the election indicated that Hamas was in a position to win.  Both the Palestinian Authority and the Israelis were looking for a delay in the election, but the Americans insisted on it being held as scheduled.  Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy, said:

“Either Secretary Rice was being disingenuous or else her department has a serious information-sharing problem, because (State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research) could not have done a much better job of assessing the Palestinian election than they did.”

This is another example of use by the Bush Administration of the ignorance defense.