Home for me, well,it's a - kind of a complicated question

SECRETARYRICE: Absolutely, I'm there.(Laughter.)FOREIGN MINISTER SMITH: Well,the other Rosetta Stone outlet great change in Australian post-World War IIsociety is that we've extended life expectancy to 80 for menand 82 for women. So there is - girls, there is plenty oftime left. (Laughter.)MS. BARBER:Chantel, would you like to come forward and ask aquestion?QUESTION: Madame Secretary,where is home for you and how often do you get to gothere?SECRETARY RICE: Where is - I'msorry?FOREIGN MINISTER SMITH: Home,home.QUESTION: Where ishome?SECRETARY RICE: Home for me, well,it's a - kind of a complicated question. I was born inBirmingham, Alabama, and a lot of my family is still in theSouth. My parents and I were transports to Denver, Coloradowhen I was 12 years old. But I moved to Northern California,to Stanford University, where really, I now consider home,in 1981, which I now realize is well before any of you wereborn, but that's all right. It's - (Laughter.) So I've livedin Stanford - at Stanford and it's Northern California -it's right near San Francisco - for a lot of years. I reallyconsider it home. I don't get back very often, because it'sa long way from Washington to California. It's been aboutonce a year since I've been in Washington.But thePresident of the United States - a new President of theUnited States will be inaugurated at noon on January the20th, and shortly thereafter, I'll go back to California,because I love the Western United States and I reallyconsider it home now. (Applause.)MS.BARBER: And we probably only have time for one morequestion, but I know Danielle was really keen to ask thisone, so I'm glad we've had time forit.QUESTION: Madame Secretary, would youever consider running for president? And Rosetta Stone Arabic what would you seeas the major hurdles to overcome if you were torun?SECRETARY RICE: Well, the majorhurdle to overcome is I've never run for anything. I didn'tactually - I was just asking Lucy how one becomes head girland I understand you run for it. I never ran for head girl,Lucy, so - no, I'm really not somebody who is likely to bein political life as an elected official.I admirecolleagues and fri who do want to run for office. Infact, democracy dep on having good and honorable anddecent people who are willing and able to submit themselvesto the test of electoral politics, and then, having gottenthe mandate of the people, go on to remember where thatmandate comes from. Because I think one of the dangerssometimes of being in politics is that you can lose sight ofthe fact that it's quite a temporary mandate, you know? It'sonly something that's there by the will of the people aslong as the people will it.So I think it's a terrificsystem. There's certainly nothing better. But it's not quitefor me. I've been very lucky. And in the United States, wehave a system that's quite different than your system inAustralia, which is that our ministers, our secretaries,tend - do not come from elected office. Most often, they -my - I come out of academia. My colleague, the Secretary ofTreasury, came - was a Wall Street - chairman of GoldmanSachs in Wall Street. The Secretary of Defense, Bob Gates,was a longtime civil servant who then left and became auniversity president and came back. So we come fromdifferent backgrounds rather than coming through theparliamentary system and being a part of the partyapparatus. So we have a very - it's fortunate that you cango in and do your public service and then return to whateveryou came from. And deep in my soul, deep in my being, I'm anacademic. I love the world of ideas. I love writing. I loveteaching, especially. I miss teaching. I care deeply abouteducation because - and Stephen and I - as he said, weconnected on this point.I think education is importantfor a couple of reasons. First and foremost, because in ademocratic society, particularly one that is multiethnic,and like our societies are, people really have to believe,and it has to be true, that it doesn't matter where you camefrom, it matters where you're going. It really has to betrue that the circumstances of your birth are notdeterminative in how you're going to end up. And the onlyway to equalize different circumstances of birth is througheducation. And so it's critical to the proper functioning Rosetta Stone French ofmultiethnic democracies that people be educated.Secondly,if you don't have an educated population, the society juststagnates. One issue that I've been very interested in sinceI've been Secretary of State is women's empowerment aroundthe world. You know, before Afghanistan - the Taliban wasthrown out of power in Afghanistan, they would not allowwomen to be taught how to read. They wouldn't let women goto school. And the reason was very obvious.