Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described slavery and the role it played in the founding of this country as a national "birth defect" during an interview with reporters and editors at the Washington Times earlier this week.

"America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race … obviously, when this country was founded, the words that were enshrined in all of our great documents that have been such an inspiration to people around the world … they didn't have me [sic] for an overwhelming element of our founding population. And Black Americans were a founding population," Rice said. "Europeans and Africans came here and founded this country together. Europeans by choice and Africans in chains and that's a not a very pretty reality of our founding. I think that particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today."

To hear Rice's complete statement, click here.

Rice's comments come on the heels of a highly regarded speech by Sen. Barack Obama in which he addressed the impact race was having both in the presidential campaign and on the nation as a whole.

In addressing Obama's speech, Rice said it was "important" that Obama "gave it for a whole host of reasons," but she declined to comment further on the campaign. She also said members of her own family have "endured terrible humiliations."

"What I would like understood as a Black American is that Black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them--and that's our legacy," she said.

Rice's name has been floated in recent weeks as a possible contender for the vice-presidential slot alongside Sen. John McCain. She told editors at the Washington Times that she has no interest in the position.

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