QUESTION: And you have been back here since skiing, I understand, have you not?

SECRETARY RICE: I have been back several times, as a matter of fact. Of course, my parents lived there for a while and then after they died I come back from time to time for various things. It's just a great state. I feel very at home in Denver.

QUESTION: I saw your interview this morning with Meredith Vieira on the Today Show. You weren't ten seconds into answering her question when she interrupted, disagreeing, declaring that what we're doing in Iraq isn't working, as she put it with some emphasis in facial expression. It occurred to me that it's difficult for you, and I'm asking is there anything you or the President can say that will persuade critics who are committed to a U.S. pullout the sooner the better?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think, obviously, there are some people for whom the war in Iraq, they've decided that there -- that it isn't either worth it or that we can't win. I don't really believe that that's the majority of the American people. I think the American people want to succeed in Iraq. They want to know: Can we succeed in Iraq?

And I think that what we've had over this last couple of days with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker reporting is that we have the two professionals on the ground saying that things are trending in the right direction, we're making progress, it's hard work. But as Ambassador Crocker said, it's hard work; but if you want to see really hard work, let the United States leave too soon, and then you're going to have really hard work throughout the Middle East and you're going to have instability that will be very bad for our security.

This policy that the President put in place in January is having an effect on the security situation. And you know what is surprising to me is that just a little while ago we were talking about the Sunni insurgency, about al-Qaida, the epicenter of al-Qaida being Anbar. They called it the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iraq. And now, working with local leaders, Iraq -- the Iraqi local leaders and the American Armed Forces have pushed al-Qaida out of Anbar. And the President and I witnessed the reconciliation that the Sunni leaders are bringing about there. So what I would say is, yes, it's hard work and there's a lot of work to be done, but there are some good things that are happening in Iraq.

QUESTION: On the subject of leaving prematurely, do you think that President Bush's remarks the other day were appropriate talking about the consequences of a precipitous pullout from Vietnam years ago?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, yes, because I think we tend to forget that the precipitous pullout there, that it was followed by great violence, that it was followed by the deaths of more than a million people, that it was followed by the collapse in Cambodia and in Vietnam itself. What the President, I think, was really alerting us to is that the United States has responsibilities. And yes, it's responsibility in this case to the Iraqi people, but it's also responsibility to the American people to recognize that if there is a chaotic Iraq where Iran is the dominant power in the region and where the terrorists have training and safe haven facilities, we're going to pay for that at home.

QUESTION: How do you respond to anti-war groups, militantly so like moveon.org, who impugn General Petraeus' honesty and refer to him in their New York Times full-page ad as General Betray Us?

SECRETARY RICE: I think it was reprehensible. I think that this -- General Petraeus is somebody who wears our uniform, wears it proudly, has served in difficult circumstances, is now serving in an extremely difficult circumstance, who is bringing successes to Iraq, whom the men and women in uniform respect and look up to. And he is somebody who is unfailingly honest and straightforward and did give over the last couple of days his appraisal of what is happening in Iraq and what we need to do. And so I think he needs to be respected and honored, as we should respect and honor all men and women in uniform in the United States.

QUESTION: Do you agree with, and how would you summarize, the military and political assessments of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker?

SECRETARY RICE: I think General Petraeus is saying that we've made some security gains, we and the Iraqi armed forces. The President's surge of our forces allowed us to put more forces into places where we could make a difference and now are making a difference, like Anbar and some of the neighborhoods of Baghdad.

Obviously, we had hoped that the central government would use this time to pass some key legislation, but -- they're going to need to work harder at that, but it's not as if there isn't any political progress in Iraq. And I think what Ambassador Crocker was pointing to is that what is happening in Anbar, which used to be the heart of what we thought of as the most troublesome part of Iraq -- the Sunni insurgency was dominant there, al-Qaida was there -- what is happening there is political. The local leaders have taken back the streets. They are organizing themselves for economic reconstruction and for political activity on behalf of their people. And frankly, they are putting pressure on the central government to deliver goods and services to their province. So this is a more decentralized political process that's underway, but it's a good thing when Iraqis look to their local leaders, not just to their national leaders, for goods and services and to protect their interests.

QUESTION: Is it fair to evaluate the benchmarks not on progress but strictly on a pass/fail basis, as some critics have done?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it's interesting you should use that analogy because what I've said is that this isn't a multiple choice test where each benchmark is yes or no or right or wrong. On some benchmarks, they've made little progress. On some, they've made very great progress. And on some, it's somewhere in between. I rather think of it more like grading an essay exam; you have to look qualitatively at what is happening. And what is happening with this local leadership, which by the way we here at the Department of State with our Provincial Reconstruction Teams, we are really supporting these local developments. They don't have -- the Iraqis don't have a law on de-Baathification, but they are reincorporating people into the armed forces, they are paying people's pensions. They don't have an oil law, which was one of the benchmarks, but they are distributing the oil revenues to the provinces from the center.

So there's a great deal that is going on in Iraq. This is a very complicated, complex set of processes. Saddam Hussein -- I thought that Ambassador Crocker was very articulate about this -- destroyed the fabric of this society. And so they are rebuilding that and we're helping them to do it. It's a mixed picture. It's hard work. But we're making progress.

QUESTION: Talking about oil, I understand the Kurds have contracted independently with Hunt Oil, an American company, to help them develop oil and didn't do so by going through the central government. Does that create a problem?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, this is one disadvantage of there not having been an oil law at the time. But I suspect that what will happen is that they will be able to put together a framework in which the local authorities, the regional authorities, have considerable capability on the contracting side.

QUESTION: The New York Times refers to so-called independent assessments that claim the surge, the change in tactics, contradict General Petraeus' appraisal of them and hasn't reduced violence or improved security. Is that true?

SECRETARY RICE: I can only trust the people on the ground, and General Petraeus, General Odierno, who is the three-star general that works for General Petraeus, Ambassador Crocker, the Iraqis themselves, show that there is a decline in violence.

Now, it's not -- it's not a matter of that there's no violence. There is violence. And a group like al-Qaida can get off a spectacular attack from time to time that does make the numbers higher. But I fully trust General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker when they say that there's been a reduction in violence, and that is supported by what the Iraqis themselves say, the Iraqi Government says, and also what any number of other officials in the region say.

QUESTION: Wasn't it predictable that with all the political pressure in this country coming from critics of the Administration to set a timetable with the mid-September date set for General Petraeus' report to Congress, wasn't it predictable that al-Qaida, that Iranian influence forces in Iraq and some insurgents would accelerate the level of violence in order to create more pressure for a pullout?

SECRETARY RICE: I don't think there's any doubt that the enemy would try and take advantage and try to show that things are not working. But even with those attempts for the al-Qaida and other enemies of the Iraqi people to try and show that it's not working, there has still been a reduction in violence, there is still political activity that is growing, there is economic activity that is growing, the central government is getting economic resources out to the provinces, the Iraqi security forces -- particularly the army -- those forces are improving their capability.

So yes, there are determined enemies. I thought it was very interesting that the President of Iran said if the United States leaves a vacuum, Iran will be happy to fill it. That is precisely what President Bush has been saying. That is precisely what would happen, in addition to other chaotic events in Iraq. And so we need to keep our eye on what is at stake here. And what is at stake is American security interests in the most volatile region of the world, the Middle East.

QUESTION: What was the word that General Petraeus used to describe Iranian influence in Iraq? Was it malign?

SECRETARY RICE: Malign, yes. And I think that that sums it up.

QUESTION: What do you think of proposals that would partition Iraq into Kurdish, Sunni and Shia subdivisions?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the most important thing is that I don't think I've ever heard many Iraqis who think that's a good idea. Iraqis think of themselves as an Iraqi nation. Yes, they have differences, they have sectarian differences, but they are all a part of Iraq.

I think a better way to think about it, rather than talking about partitioning them, is to allow what is a natural process of decentralization to take place. When you think about it and your listeners think about it, we would never think of going to Washington to get our sewer system fixed. We would never think of Washington -- going to Washington to decide to build a school. So the Iraqis are developing more responsible and more accountable local governance structures that are closer to the people and that can deliver goods and services.

Now, what the central government has to do is the central government has to make resources available so that those local governments can succeed. But that's a much healthier way, I think, to think about it, and then you'll have a national army, you'll have a national parliament, you'll have responsibilities of the national government, but increasingly local Iraqis will be in charge of their own futures. And that's something that Americans ought to be able to understand very well.

QUESTION: Mid-September had been identified as a key point when General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker would give their reports. Is there another date in the not-too-distant future that's identified as such a key date?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think that the General has said that he feels that we'll have more assessment in several months, maybe six months or so, and we'll continue to assess all along the way. But what really General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have made clear is that we are seeing reductions in the level of violence, we are seeing political activity that is promising even if it's not exactly the political activity that we thought we would see at the national level, and that this is the time to make sure that we secure the gains that we've made. If we can secure those gains, clearly American force levels can start to come down. General Petraeus has said that.

It's also the case that American responsibilities are going to change. We're not going to be doing the same thing several months from now or certainly years from now that we're doing now. And so I think they laid out a strategy for success based on the successes of the President's policies that he undertook in January.

QUESTION: Madame Secretary, one last question, if I may, off the topic on a local issue. Former Senator Hank Brown will be stepping down as the President of the University of Colorado next year. The Board of Regents is searching for a replacement. Given your Colorado roots, is this a position you might consider when your term is up?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, that's very nice. But I tell you, there's one thing I've been very clear about is, having been Provost at Stanford, I loved it but I don't want to be a university president. But Hank Brown has done a terrific job and I'm sure that Colorado is going to get a really, really fine leader.

QUESTION: But we need you. What could I get -- what could I say to get you to change your mind? (Laughter.)

SECRETARY RICE: Well, if Mike Shanahan needs some help out there with the Broncos, I'm available. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: There had been some speculation, given your interest in sports, that you might be interested in being commissioner of Major League Baseball.

SECRETARY RICE: No, I think I'm going to have to wrestle the President of the United States on that one. He's the baseball fan. I'm the NFL fan.

QUESTION: So how about an NFL commissionership? Although we have a new one now --

SECRETARY RICE: No, we got a great commissioner who's demonstrating that he's -- he's had some tough issues in his first year, and he's done it all very, very well.

QUESTION: If you were to be commissioner of Major League Baseball, could you get rid of the designated hitter rule in the American League?

SECRETARY RICE: I know a lot of people who like that designated hitter rule, probably pitchers more than anybody.

QUESTION: I'm a traditionalist. I like it the way the National League does it now.

Madame Secretary, thanks very much for giving us some time today.

SECRETARY RICE: It's great to be with you.

QUESTION: Best of luck.

SECRETARY RICE: Bye-bye.

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