Condoleezza Rice Might Be Pursuing the VP Spot
By David Hinz Posted in 2008 — Comments (109) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
ABC News is reporting that Condoleezza Rice "is actively courting the Vice Presidential nomination, according to Republican Strategist Dan Senor."
Senor, best remembered for his role as chief spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, under Presidential Envoy L. Paul Bremer III, is a Republican Political Strategist with close ties to the Bush White House.
Senor told George Stephanopoulos, this morning, "Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this." He went on to say, "There's this ritual in Washington, the Americans for Tax Reform, which is headed by Grover Norquist, he holds a weekly meeting of conservative leaders, about 100, 150 people, sort of inside, chattering, class types. They all typically get briefings from political conservative leaders. Ten days ago, they had an interesting visit. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The first time a Secretary of State has visited the Wednesday Meeting."
According to her White House biography, Condi Rice has served three Presidents; Ronald W Reagan, George H W Bush and George W Bush. During the Reagan Administration:
In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender -- Integrated Training in the Military.
She served George H W Bush:
From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
Under George W Bush:
Dr. Condoleezza Rice became the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, on January 22, 2001. On January 28, 2005, Dr Rice was sworn in as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States of America.
Dr Rice has served as Provost of Stanford University for six years, as well as on the Board of Directors of several distinguished and diverse American corporations. She is fluent in at least five languages. Born in the Jim Crow South, she demonstrated a brilliance at an early age.
Rice started learning French, music, figure skating and ballet at age three. At age 15, she began classes with the goal of becoming a concert pianist. Her plans changed when she realized that she did not play well enough to support herself through music alone. While Rice is not a professional pianist, she still practices often and plays with a chamber music group. Rice made use of her pianist training to accompany cellist Yo-Yo Ma for Brahms's Violin Sonata in D Minor at Constitution Hall in April 2002 for the National Medal of Arts Awards.
As a youngster, she experienced discrimination firsthand, and remembers quite well the 16th Street Sunday School bombing in 1963. In her own words:
I remember the bombing of that Sunday School at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. I did not see it happen, but I heard it happen, and I felt it happen, just a few blocks away at my father’s church. It is a sound that I will never forget, that will forever reverberate in my ears. That bomb took the lives of four young girls, including my friend and playmate, Denise McNair. The crime was calculated to suck the hope out of young lives, bury their aspirations. But those fears were not propelled forward, those terrorists failed.
Her father, a Presbyterian Minister, moved the family to Denver in 1967 where she attended St. Mary's Academy, a private all-girls Catholic High School. From Wiki:
Born November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the National Defense University in 2002, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. She resides in Washington, D.C.
Condoleezza Rice has often stated that she has no interest in running for political office. And yet, the rumors have persisted for more than four years that she would be on the short list for any Republican Presidential candidate in 2008. Senor's comments to Stephanopoulos will once again fan the flames of those rumors. Today Senor said, "What the McCain campaign has to consider is whether or not they want to pick a total outsider, a fresh face, someone a lot younger than him, a governor who people aren't that familiar with. The challenge they're realizing is that they'll have to have to spend 30-45 days, which they won't have at that point, educating the American public about who this person is. The other category is someone who people instantly say, the second they see that announcement, I get it, that person could be president tomorrow. Condi Rice is an option."
Talk about Ready on day One! Some Republicans have expressed concern that Rice holds too many moderate views to appease the Republican base. This should not, however be a concern for the "Maverick" John McCain.
Rice, in addition to her foreign relations credentials, is a strong Second Amendment advocate.
Segregation also hardened her stance on the right to bear arms; Rice has said in interviews that if gun registration had been mandatory, her father's weapons would have been confiscated, leaving them defenseless against Ku Klux Klan nightriders.
To suggest that I wholeheartedly support a Condoleezza Rice VP would be an understatement. I have been advocating just that outcome for more than two years. Evry time that I have suggested that possibilities, I have been told, "Don't hold your breath. She is not interested."
Well folks, if Dan Senor is correct, she might have changed her mind.
I've said it a hundred times here if I've said it once, but the last thing we need is an Affirmative Action hire for VP -- and that's all this would be. She is woefully out of her depth in her current position and, while I have been in situations where a person is promoted out of something they can't handle in order to protect everybody, that is not what we need here.
She's been a miserable failure as SecState, a job which turned out to be far over her head, and putting her on the ticket as the Veep nominee would simply give her a chance to screw up more publicly.
Besides, McC can't have a pro-choice running mate....can he?
Condi needs to go back to Stanford and stay there. That is unless she's willing to go to National Security Advisor. She was truly great there.
"After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood." -Fred Dalton Thompson
....either, to tell the truth. I'd like to know more about what her input regarding the threat Iraq posed to national security in 2002, and what else she did with the position during that time.
I'd argue that Condi was more successful at State than she was at NSC.
At NSC she was marginalized by Rumsfeld and Cheney. Her job should have been to tie DoD, State, and CIA into coherent policy execution for the President. Instead they agencies drifted into competition, which was especially damaging during the immediate aftermath of OIF.
There's been plenty written about her problems at State, but one thing has NOT been written much about: it was Condi who finally forced the State bureaucracy to get synched up with DoD and start offering a coherent pol-mil counterinsurgency strategy. For COIN to be successful, the military and civilian reconstruction efforts MUST be synchronized. That didn't happen until Condi came aboard.
As I've said before on Redstate, Ambassador Crocker is an unsung hero of the Iraq turnaround. I am certain that GEN Petraeus would agree. I think Condi must get some credit for appointing Crocker and giving him the lattitude and guidance to do his job the way he has done it, and for backing him when he bucked State othodoxy.
"If all men were just, there would be no need of valor."
- Agesilaus
...she should be promoted?
Come on. At the risk of channeling Geraldine Ferraro, if CR were white and/or male, she wouldn't even be looked at once - let alone twice - for any of this.
In fact, she'd've gone the way of AGAG by this point, IMO.
I would like to think that you don't mean that. People are actually discussing Charlie Crist as a potential VP. She has 30 IQ points on Crist, Pawlenty et al. Compare her to say, Hillary. At least Condi was in the room for policy discussions. I would like her at the top of the ticket. She has more executive experience than McCain.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies...
Her name would never have come up once if she was white....and, again, she is so woefully out of her depth as SecState that she needs to end her time in government service for the good of us all.
Note the gender pronoun.
absentee
Also now available at Political Machine.
If Liz Dole had Condi's resume and intellect, she would be on anyone's short list. Name a male candidate that is more qualified. I think Dan Quayle is still available. What about him?
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies...
Ridiculous. Regardless of if you think she's been a great Sec. of State or if she'd be a good VP nominee, I'd give her about a C+ on both, she's accomplished more then nearly any other Vice Presidential Candidate in the history of the country. Bush 41 might have been more experienced. Other then that, you'd have to go back to the 1800's to find someone as well qualified as Condi as a VP. Heck, as P for that matter.
You're engaging in "reverse" Affirmative Action. The same kind of stupid tripe that lead liberals to claim Clarance Thomas wasn't qualified to sit on the Supreme Court because he had supposedly only been nominated because he was black. Thomas would have you for breakfast for saying something this blatantly ignorant. (BTW, while he was in the Reagan Administration, he specifically recommended Condi for a more high profile job.)
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
Really? You say she's been in policy meetings, point to her "executive experience" (as Provost of Stanford, I assume), and cite an IQ level and comparison you really don't know anything about, and call that a reason for a person to be VP or POTUS?
Seriously? How about we look at her track record: NSA, not sure, not enough info. SecState: miserable failure. Stanford Provovs: Not enough information. Playing piano: very talented.
Not seeing a case for POTUS or VP status here...
but I need to know her politics before I support her for Veep. Is that too much to ask?
___________________________________________________________
Molon Labe!
Its a hostile environment that had time and opportunity to entrench. Whats more they had outside support and a weekend adversary.
I am not concluding anything from this btw all I am saying is that the victory conditions might not be the usual ones for her tenure there.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Then look at aims and policy goals. I'm not ignoring the festering boil that is the Dept of State as a whole -- it's completely an evaluation of her leadership, competence, and how she has helped steer the admin's FP goals.
It's simply pathetic.
and perhaps you are right Jeff. I think it simply is a trial balloon, nothing more. She is a brilliant person, and I do admire her tremendously, and that is the problem. She is TOO smart for politics and my views are too slanted, because of my admiration of her to make a relevant opinion.
-one Rice herself has been floating for awhile.
She owes her career to the Bushes and has allowed the State Department to run her rather the other way around. This never happened to George Shultz. She doesn't deserve a promotion. We can do a lot, lot better
accomplish much at the State Department? Dick Cheney could not do anything if he was Sec State. First, you would have to fire 90% of the employees and shoot 5%. A desire to work at State should be a disqualification for any position in the organization! I love Mitt Romney, but I don't think big John shares that love. Don't compare her to your ideal VP, compare her to the folks that are probably on McCain's list. Something tells me Duncan Hunter ain't on that list.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies...
I'll let the "Affirmative Action" slur go. Rice is a lot smarter than you. I half-suspect you wouldn't have the stones to say that to her face.
All this ranting about Rice usually revolves around her doing her job for the President in the Middle East, which she was. Rice has been trying to implement American policy there in the face of Israeli mulishness and the usual Palestinian gangsterism and murder.
Condi Rice was the first prominent person who actually found and promoted David Petraeus, starting from 2005 onward, when most of you were patting the execrable Donald Rumsfeld on the back while he was running the Army into the ground. It's a long story, but Condi is one of the author's of the surge, which is why David Kilcullen works for her.
She has executed a reorientation of our diplomacy away from Europe and the Middle East and towards India and Japan. Were you not so concentrated on staffing the State Department with True Believers like John Bolton, something that will never, ever come to pass in that organizational culture, you'd see that.
Do you actually believe that State can be staffed by Young Republicans? If you do, I want some of what you're smoking. It's a careerist paradise, and Condi understood this, and worked with what she had to execute the President's policies as best she could.
Good God, do you actually believe that someone like John Bolton actually got things done?
Sorry, friend. What Rice realized that you do not is that there are trained professionals, like John Negroponte and Chris Hill, who are capable of getting the government's business done. The business of Condi Rice was diplomacy, not some RNC-inspired Chekist Blood Purge inside of State to take Revenge on State for the past sins of Dean Acheson, Clark Clifford, and Alger Hiss.
John McCain knows this, as well, and understands that the business of diplomacy is often frustrating and many-faceted. Thus, his foreign policy speech of a week and a half ago, which is the kind that would not have been written by the likes of John Bolton.
I could go on, but look, the bottom line is this, McCain needs someone who is both popular in the country and can step in and be President. If you want to nominate some Movement Conservative Nobody who needs half the campaign to be introduced, be my guest. We'll waste valuable time while Honest John has to roll the guy out during September. Or you can nominate Romney, and the Dems will run his liberal platform from his Massachussetts days.
Let's not waste time, and nominate Condi, someone who is a Conservative and who is ready to be President.
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it"-Winston Churchill
She has been a creature of the State Department. She's the one who promoted Nicholas Burns. She's the one who has undercut a tough line against Iran. She has not demonstrated a single instance of adding to American power, rather than using the chips someone else acquired.
You bet it's hard to run the State Department effectively and on behalf of your president, and most secretaries of state can't do it. But some do. George Schultz managed the State Department effectively, and one probably has to go back to Acheson to find another. And while it's hypothetical, I wouldn't bet against Dick Cheney. He didn't do too shabby a job when he ran Defense (also a job most don't succeed in).
She is not a conservative. Her instincts are not conservative. And she's been a mediocre Secretary of State (and when you rank higher than Cyrus Vance and Madeleine Albright, that's not saying much).
And I'll take John Bolton any day over Rice, because unlike Rice, he has shown himself capable of getting things done in the face of unrelenting bureaucratic opposition. And there's also that small matter that he is a principled conservative and she is not.
Condi Rice's undercutting of any plan to go war with Iran proves that she's more, not less qualified.
...I think a lot of things that I've never, ever said. I'd respond, but you really didn't make a single point in your comment (though I'm sure you think you did).
slanders Bush admin offcials since he spent some time in Iraq and with dc beltway msm compatriots.
To call Condi a potential affirmative action hire as vp borders on racist.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
That, with all due respect, was a pretty low blow.
Like I told another poster down thread, I'd love to hear a specific discussion of how COndi Rice supposedly failed America. I think she takes a lot of unfair criticism, because she constantly gets asked to do the impossible.
I'll grant that she hasn't brought lasting peace between Palestine and Israel, but then again, no other State Dept. employee has. A lot of the things Condi Rice is asked to do are either A) Not really worth accomplishing at what they would cost the US, and B) Better done with bayonets than diplomats.
"I believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other place." - The last recorded words of Adam Smith.
I also think that's pretty insulting to her and to President Bush, if it implies that she was appointed to her current and previous positions other than on merit.
But I still think it would be a bad pick politically due to the 4-more-years tag the Dems would immediately latch onto.
plain and simple. They've had plenty of good offers before but I don't know what the US State Department is supposed to do when one side refuses to cooperate beyond stringing everyone along.
I would argue that this accurately describes the situation ms. Rice has encountered throughout her stint at State. Someone has to buy for peace to sell.
"I believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other place." - The last recorded words of Adam Smith.
And stop kowtowing to the side that is fully in favor of terrorism as a political tool.
Accept the reality as it is, rather than wishing a new one onto the region.
Rice's "even-handedness" and her equating Palestinian terrorists with victims of Jim Crow show that her moral compass is not working properly. I wish her well in the private sector.
The reality is that we kowtow to the side that funds terrorism with our oil purchases. President Bush's Saudi policy (and that of his predecessors) makes a mockery of playing hardball on terrorism.
Bush certifies Saudi Arabia as anti-terrorism ally
AFP, October 19, 2007Bush's move came in a memorandum to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, required under US law to free up aid from Washington to Riyadh, that the White House released to reporters.
"I hereby certify that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with efforts to combat international terrorism and that the proposed assistance will help facilitate that effort," the president said.
His memorandum came a little more than a month after the US Treasury undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Stuart Levey, charged that Saudi Arabia has failed to prosecute the bankrollers of terrorist groups.
Levey, the undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told the US network ABC that not a single individual identified by the United States or the United Nations as a terror financier had been prosecuted by Saudi Arabia.
"Austere, intolerant, well-armed, and blood-thirsty, in their own regions the Wahhabis are a distinct factor which must be taken into account" - Winston Churchill, 1921
From where I look she has bee five times more effective than Colin Powell. Didn't you just notice how we got everything we wanted in the last Nato summit?
We also no longer have allied leaders saying snarky things in public about USA foreign policy.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
but I'd like to see John Bolton try.
I also thought Condi cared most about becoming NFL Commissioner.
Absolutely NO to a prochoice VP. Even if that were not a disqualifier (and it is!), she's a lightweight and has performed poorly at State. The electorate would see right through this as the transparent attempt it would be to appeal to women and blacks, and thus it would bring no electoal advantage.
A lot to think about. Thanks!
absentee
Also now available at Political Machine.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
______________________________________
Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
and considering the length of service of the past NFL Commissioners, she has come to realize that she cannot have that job for at least a decade or more.
NOW, what better bona fides could she produce when applying for THAT job, than to have been VP and then President of the United States.
Didn't we have a former President who went on to become Baseball Commissioner? The precedent HAS been set!
No former president has become commissioner of either MLB or the NFL. I'm not sure who you're thinking of, but it hasn't happened.
David,
As a baseball fan, Bud is bad enough, thanks but no thanks to the ideal of President Bush as his replacement.
Maybe Bush can buy back the Texas Rangers or the Huston Astros.
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Proud member of the Barry Goldwater wing of the party !
for some reason I was thinking that Harding or Taft went on to do that post, but I looked it up and I was wrong.
Taft went to the SCOTUS as Chief Justice in 1921. In the interim between his departure from the White House in 1913 and his appointment he was a professor at Yale Law School and was a President of the ABA in 1913-14.
Taft also had served on the 6th Circuit from 1892-1900 (appointed by Harrison) and was Harrison's Solicitor General before that. Taft was first and foremost a lawyer and his life goal was to be Chief Justice. I wouldn't think he was ever interested in a job like MLB Commissioner.
I like Dr. Rice, but I am not excited about her for VP because:
1. She does not hold my views on abortion.
2. Her pick further sticks a finger in the eyes of a few of us conservatives, how moderate does the GOP ticket need to be?
3. I need to be reminded of what she has actually accomplished as Secretary of State.
4. She's never run for office.
5. I get a slimy feeling that her race and gender are just some political paper weight against an Obama or Hillary ticket.
6. In all her speeches, I've never been convinced that she was a motivating leader.
Other than that, I think she is talented and served her country well. She would make a great NFL commissioner.
Redux:
Seems like that is exactly what you posted when I broached the subject a year ago, and probably two years ago. :-)
Don't take it personally David, I just wanted to give you a nice itemized list for your ease of perusal :D
I really HAD hoped that she would be able to take State and kick some a$$ over there, maybe eliminate a few America-haters; maybe make it more user-friendly.
But, I have come to believe that nothing less than a pulse-weapon will have a (positive) effect on the State Department.
I prefer the sharks with laser-beams attached to their heads, but I'd go with ill tempered bass if that's all we had.
I think the guy that freaked out about going over to Iraq sealed their fates.
Pro-choice, pro-State Department worldview. She has been undercutting Bush on Iran. She has no economic background. And she would completely alienate social conservatives. She's also busy bullying Israel to make concessions while her enemies are actively waging war against her.
But one thing about this post is absolutely true: she has been campaigning for the Veep spot for nearly a year.
Let's hope she fails.
As a newbie, you're not off to an auspicious start. I'm not sure what circles you habituate, but at RedState, we do not employ "neocons" or "neoconservatives" in its abused form as meaning "Republicans whom I dislike" (usually prefaced by "evil") - we use these words quite precisely in accord with their correct definition.
So please elaborate to whom you're referring if you wish to support your statement. And if you don't support your statement or issue a retraction, the moderators are likely to terminate your presence here rather abruptly.
It wasn't the Freemasons who poisoned the wells, it wasn't the Bildenberg Bankers, it was....The NEOCONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"I believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other place." - The last recorded words of Adam Smith.
Former Sen. Eugene McCarthy said that the word "reform" meant something different to everyone, thus meaning everything. Since it meant everything, it essentially meant nothing.
That fits the word "neocon" to a T.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
but there is plenty to criticize about Rice without using the word.
Instead of changing the State Department, the State Department changed her. Promoting her to VP would be a mistake, particularly on a McCain ticket.
I think this reading a bit too much into the Tea Leaves.
If Romney had won the nomination then I think Rice as VP would have made sense. I'm not so sure it does make sense for McCain.
I say that despite being a big fan of Rice. Considering the limitations of being Secretary of State I think she has done very well. I never expected a miracle out of the Palestinian problem, and I don't see how any reasonable person should.
If Hillary wins then it would be a good idea although I prefer Romney or Barbour
But no way Rice as VP if OBAMA beats Hillary it would be seen as tokenism by many African Americans and would only hurt us with them in the future.
It would be a Reminder of choosing Alan Keyes to run against Obama in the Senate race of 2002. The african americans in Illinois resented the selection of KEYES.
RICE is too associated with the Bush Administration and although we may like Bush 70% of our fellow Americans don't and we need alot of their votes to win.
The latest polling data out of NC and PA, I think, basically sink her. If the actual vote totals end up looking anything like the polls that are being released, her sole remaining argument (that superdels should back her because she's the stronger candidate against McCain) goes out the window.
PA is the most important state remaining:
1) It's a big state, with lots of EVs
2) It's a swing state, won by Dems in both 2000 and 2004
3) It could easily go to the Republicans if the Dem isn't sufficiently strong there.
I think the Dems could overcome losing OH and FL again. They're probably going to flip some '04 red states: VA, IA, and CO being the most likely culprits (as well as NM if Richardson is Obama's Veep, which seems increasingly likely). But I'm not sure they could overcome losing PA and MI.
Hillary's running out of arguments to make to the superdels -- and she's also losing the support of key Dems one after another after another.
She's done.
I'm not GWB's biggest fan -- but neither am I a Bush-hater. But, whatever I feel about him, he's profoundly unpopular in this country. That doesn't mean that the country's turned into a bunch of Kossacks. But the GOP needs to wash its hands of him. We shouldn't make the same mistake Democrats made in 1984, nominating the failed Jimmy Carter's VP for the presidency.
Both Obama and Clinton are using the "Third Bush Term" against McCain -- and they're no doubt doing that because they know that:
1) McCain and Bush aren't close and (whatever the other problems with the pick) the GOP's done the best it can to nominate a clean break from GWB.
2) The lead weight around any Republican's head right now is GWB's awful approval rating.
I honestly think I'd rather he pick some liberal Republican like Christie Todd Whitman than Rice. That's nothing against her -- I just think that, like everybody else closely associated with GWB, she's political poison.
I can not agree with you sir. Nor can I agree with you "political" opinion that we should cast Bush aside. I seem to think we should stand by good men whether it serves our interests or hinders them. I also have nits to pick with Bush, but I would not throw him aside to help myself.
Whitman is a RINO if there ever was one. If Condi wants to serve with McCain, it shows if nothing else, that she is a proud Republican who wants to lead us. I am not sold on Condi, she needs to tell me of her political views, but comparing here to Whitman is a grave insult sir.
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Molon Labe!
I'm saying the GOP should. There's a key difference -- political parties exist for one reason and one reason only: to run candidates and win elections.
Yeah, I think GWB's a good man. And I'm not throwing him under any buses. I defend him a lot in everyday conversation. But the party needs to focus on winning elections -- and he's not good for that right now.
Also, I'm not comparing Rice to CTW at all. Read my post again.
Picking anyone associated with the Bush admin would be a poor decision. I'd say that all of this argument over Condi's potential policy views is irrelevant. The dems would without a doubt frame their entire campaign around "preventing a 3rd Bush term". I honestly don't understand how anyone could deny this. I would rather not spot the other team with a few points before this game even gets started.
Contrary to my feelings only a few months ago, I now think Romney is the best choice. Assuming that the GOP will do what they always do, the VP nominee will be someone without any national recognition.
there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress
--AuH2O--
McCain's #1 task must be to establish a clean break with the Bush Administration.
And I say that as someone who's still a big supporter of Bush's foreign policy.
But "the people" need to feel that McCain is turning a fresh page on this (a la Sarkozy and Chirac), and choosing Rice will make that virtually impossible.
In addition, McCain absolutely CANNOT choose any Washington insiders as his running mate. That means no fellow Senators. No Congressman. No Bush Admin. figures.
Basically, it may lack "sexy", but McCain's best bet is to pick a current governor, or possibly someone who's been away from Washington for a while (e.g. Phil Gramm, John Kasich, Fred Thompson, etc.).
So, quite aside from all the other problems there are with Condi Rice, this particular factor is the killer.
P.S. One other person McCain absolutely, positively shouldn't pick - Mike Huckabee.
JMC's not going after AA's. They're in Obambi's pocket. He's going after white working women who would have voted for Hillary and pro-defense white men.
Condi gets them both ways, given the fact that Hillary will, most assuredly, NOT be on Obama's ticket.
A Rice selection will have NOTHING to do with the black vote. That's gone. It's all about national security, the women's vote, and the 2nd Amendment (which, I might add, will become a huge issue this fall, given Obama's stance against Concealed Carry and Rice's pro-RKBA stance).
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it"-Winston Churchill
of being the pick.
#1) Rice has stated previously that she is "mildly pro-choice" without further elaboration.
What does that mean?
Does it mean that she favors it in the case of rape and incest? Does it mean that she favors the morning after pill?
We don't know. The first George Bush had to change his stance a bit and Rice could/might have to as well.
#2) Rice is liked by the common people in the GOP regardless of what us political snobs may think.
#3) Lindsay Graham has said that McCain will pick a well known conservative who reinforces National Security credentials.
Rice makes sense from that point of view (yeah, I know that a lot of you see her as a moderate. Some days I do, some days I don't).
#4) Rice makes sense at stealing the votes from the Democratic loser.
If Obama loses, the African Americans can vote for an African American for VP.
If Hillary loses, the disaffected women can vote for a woman for VP.
You have to keep in mind that the McCain feels that they have to win this on National Security. They are in for a penny so why not go in for a pound.
30% Rice
30% Romney (economics plus money of his own to spend)
20% Pawlenty (swing states, loyal)
10% Crist (swing state)
10% The field
You have to keep in mind that the McCain feels that they have to win this on National Security. They are in for a penny so why not go in for a pound.
Precisely.
But something else. A lot of people are missing Obama's stance on Concealed Carry. He's in favor of a Federal Law restricting Concealed Carry to only police officers and former service-people. It's the old "sportsmen and hunters" dodge.
It's an assault on gun rights. Period.
Don't think the McCain people don't know this. They also know that Rice is very popular with the gunners over her purist stance on RKBA issues (except with GOA-those people think that people should be able to store tactical nuclear weapons).
This will make itself felt as we go forward, no matter who McCain's veep pick happens to be.
"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it"-Winston Churchill
I'm not sure if Rice would be a good or bad pick, to tell my honest assessment. Someone else may correct me, however I don't think she's very "gaffe prone." That said, being a Fredhead I'd love Thompson, however a good stable governor would not be a bad choice.
I'm not so sure about the brilliance of Condi Rice...
She blew the pre-9/11 call, testifying that she thought the threat from bin Laden and Al Qaeda was historical in nature.
She blew the call on weapons of mass destruction. Yes, I know that a lot of people made the same mistake. But the people who surround the president aren't paid to make the same mistakes that everyone else makes. They're paid to get it right.
I don't know what her contribution to the pre-surge planning for the war was, but she was National Security Advisor at the time. She can't have been completely out of the loop. However you feel about the war, it's difficult to argue that the early planning was very effective.
What was her contribution as a Kremlinologist? Did she successfully predict the fall of the Soviet Union? Or did she make the same mistakes as everyone else in that case, too?
particularly the pre 9/11 crap. I don't support her either, but that is because I have no idea of her political views.
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Molon Labe!
VPs usually round out a weakness in the POTUS candidate, don't they? What does Condi provide? She can't deliver a state. Her key forte' is in foreign affairs, which is a strength of McCain's. She would be a better choice for a Democratic candidate in that regard.
She's never been elected to anything.
She's mismanaged the Department of State, who has in turn mismanaged Iraq. BAGGAGE!
Her only redeeming quality as a VP candidate is that she's a black female, but that's pandering to the same identity politics that many of us have disdained from the other side of the aisle. I would love to select her in order to gain new respect in the eyes of black Americans, but frankly 1) they are a relatively small group, and 2) they have been brainwashed en masse to vote Democratic. If Jews can still remain a Democratic bloc after all that has happened with the GWOT, then blacks will probably not be swayed by this. I can hear the sad refrain of "Uncle Tom" already.
I frankly don't get the obsession with Condi. I think she's a bad choice. McCain needs an executive to even out his non-executive experience. He needs a governor or former governor, not another Washington insider like himself. He should select someone who can fill the role in 4-8 years. Someone who is a viable presidential candidate in their own right.
First, our presidential and vice-presidential candidate would be more qualified than the opposition.
Second, she offers what the disgruntled losers of either Clinton or Obama campaign would be looking for once their candidate is defeated.
THird, she represents a true campaign that is not apart of identity politics. Although MSM would try to paint her as tokenism to either Clinton or Obama nomination--people would see they could have a female vice-president whose single great accomplishment was not being wife to the president who was impeached, and they would have an African-American candidate where race was not at issue (b/c GOP is not the affirmative action party) and her resume is more than working with local communities, attending a racist church, and serving three years in Senate (running for president during two of those years).
Finally, her moderate views on social issues have no impact as a Vice-President. Even as president, she would not stir the base--look at the Harriet Meiers debacle as an example.
I have been hoping for this for quite some time.
Make your arguments...
Who will be the greatest asset to the ticket? Who can energize the voters? Who has the least negatives to the undecides? Who doesn't clash with McCain on the issues? Who is already well known to the electorate?....
HAD a candidate who could energize the base, that candidate would be our nominee for POTUS. Dr Rice would be a bold move; someone who is excellent of foreign policy -- ready on day one, as the Hillary campaign would say.
She is conservative to moderate on issues, a fit with McCain, and is infinitely more qualified than either candidate on the other side of the ballot.
Following what we can oly hope is a debacle in Denver, with a Democrat Party on the verge of a major crackup, Dr Rice could drive the stake through the heart of the Democrat vampire, relegating that party to the ash-heap of history.
I think it is hilarious to say the least that Rice would think these might be suitable as a VP and that she should campaign, even if via whisper for the slot. First, she's failed the country in her roles within the Bush administration. She's a college professor who should return quietly to academia.
The last thing McCain needs is anyone so directly tainted by the Bush administration and he doesn't need to pander to Black voters by picking Rice. Whether it would be pandering or not, clearly it would be characterized as such. McCain needs to pick someone who can help him with moderate voters, Rice won't do that.
Matthew Weaver
http://www.TheProblemWithObama.com
http://www.TheObamaCult.com
Failed the country? In what specific ways has she failed the country? This could be fascinating...
"I believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other place." - The last recorded words of Adam Smith.
that she has absolutley NO INTEREST in further political ambitions. The fact that she is now activiely courting the idea just annoys me to high heaven. Don't these people have even 5 year plans?
She has been campaigning actively for the slot for a good year at this point.
She would be a disaster. Pro-choice, pro-affirmative action. And a wet blanket in the fight against Islamic extremism. McCain has to be very careful about alienating the conservative base. She or Ridge or Powell would do big damage. Only Giuliani has a shot among pro-choicers (his economic, executive experience, plus his foreign policy outlook give him a credibility that the others don't come close to achieving), and he would have to switch his position on abortion to conform with McCain's.
The ticket already has top notch foreign policy creds, I'm not sure what Condi adds.
It would just allow the Democrats to slam the GOP ticket as being clueless on the economy.
A strong economic mind like Romney would be a great counter to that, and put Michigan and Colorado in strong positions to go or stay red.
She was lucky to escape being killed in the bombing of her church in Birmingham, AL, when she was around ten, as three of her little friends died. What does a descendent of slaveholders like Obama have to match THAT!
No SecState could do much with a dunderhead like Rumsfeld doing his Beltway politics schtick. Unfortunately, she did make the ginormous booboo of cajoling Israel & other skeptics to allow HAMAS into the '06 elections. Talk about unintended consequences!
Is she pro-choice? Unaware of that, and she did get a Masters from Notre Dame, so a recantation could occur. Look at Mitt. I still like Mitt more than Condi, but she is a two-fer and the Hillaryites & independents might waver towards McCain.
The art of the possible. No more leftist SCOTUS types. Elect McCain.
I don't look at Rice as an affirmative action pick as much as a strategic pick.
In the same way that you put Minnesota and Wisconsin into play with Pawlenty, I think you give the Obama or Clinton loser's voters a place to land if you put Condi on the ticket.
Considering that getting State to follow the lead of any pro-defense Republican President is tougher than herding cats, I can't see how anyone can really hold her performance as SecState against her.
I've said previously that I wouldn't vote for John McCain in November, but picking Condi as VP is one of a very few things he could do that would make me seriously reconsider that. (Other things on that list: making Newt Gingrich his VP, making Fred Thompson his VP, endorsing the FairTax.)
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Finrod's First Law of Bandwidth:
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it takes the bandwidth of ten thousand.
but I think he may have had enough after his time in the House.
I still advocate Herman Cain but I know people might not respond well to the phonetics of "McCain-Cain."
in the next election cycle. She needs to get elected to some office prior to appearing on a national ticket.
The affirmative action tripe is utterly pathetic. I don't see how anyone could think that someone who has served at the highest levels of diplomacy (Sec. of State) and national security (National Security Advisor)for the last 8 years with ties all the way back to the Reagan administration could ever be called an affirmative action pick.
This is why the Left finds so many knee-jerk supporters and out fundraises us.The impression is that there doesn't seem to be room for Mormans, Hispanics, blacks, or gays on the Right. Of course, that isn't true, but appearance can be reality for many people. Just look at the myths that have taken root over Vietnam and now Iraq.
Any number of young white Repubs sold as the future of the party over the years (Quayle, Allen, Santorum) are complete lightweights compared to Condi Rice, and yet they are treated like rising stars.
We even nominated a inarticulate governor with no other experience as our presidential pick in 2000, and wonder why he has turned out to be LBJ all over again.
This really ticks me off. Are we going to get some milk-toast scion to stand as vp? Is that what its about? This is exactly why I remain a conservative who has never and will never be a member of the Republican party.
I can understand people who don't know a lot about Rice's politics being wary. I have been a bit wary because of her close ties with the Bush administration and this administration's utter failure in explaining this war to the American people.
Still, anyone who has followed Condi in her appearances before Congress or in her speeches abroad knows she is a capable and strong woman.
She is the closest thing to an Iron Lady this country has today, and she brings more to the table than Romney and Huckabee combined.
Pathetic.
"The most dangerous form in which oppression can overshadow a community is that of popular sway" -James Fenimore Cooper
I'm with you 100% on Dr Rice, but quibble about Rick Santorum. He was no lightweight, like the rest you mentioned.
Santorum lost cred in my view when he began trashing McCain after having asked McCain to campaign for him in his re-election bid.
I didn't think it was smart or honorable.
"The most dangerous form in which oppression can overshadow a community is that of popular sway" -James Fenimore Cooper
Is that I have no idea who the hell Rick Santorum is or what he's about. Someone needs to write an article outlining why they think he should be VP. Hell, even I wrote an article outlining why I think Elizabeth Dole should be VP. People didn't agree, but at least I made an effort in outlining why I thought she would be a good choice beyond: "I like her!"
go back and search the archives. Rick has posted here in the past. You can get a good idea of his ideas from his own words.
Ask the question: "Would she be discussed if she were a white male?"
No? Then it's an AA pick. The fact that she's disastrously unqualified and has been a failure at her latest job adds to that fact.
In response to your question, I think any white male with the following resume would be seriously considered for VP.
-Long academic career in International Relations, Provost of univesity housing our friends at Hoover, who saw fit to name her to an honorary post.
-Balanced a university budget noone thought could be balanced.
-Soviet expert fluent in 5 languages, discovered by Reagan NSA and mentored by Reagan Sec of State, served Bush I as his Russia expert, trusted in negotiations with Gorby.
-NSA in Bush II admin, Sec of State. Even though I have been critical of Israel peace process, still able to split Palestinian interests and isolate Hamas from Fatah.
-Has had to lead a State Dept. full of career diplomats, many of whom openly hostile to the administration.
-Knows more world leaders more intimately that anyone in the running.
I think she's qualified. If she were a white male, I think we'd be discussing her more, not less. Such is the sad legacy of affirmative action. We don't even know a diamond when we hold it in our hands.
I would feel just fine with Condi. Glen Beck can kiss off.
"The most dangerous form in which oppression can overshadow a community is that of popular sway" -James Fenimore Cooper
totally agree. Rice is very qualified. no one is two words.
Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone. --Mitt Romney
I was very dismayed when John McCain gave his foreign policy vision speech and spoke of excluding Russia from the G8 and other economic and political relationships. I thought that was neither warranted nor helpful. McCain's running mate, whomever he or she may be, needs to bring some extra foreign policy vision and understanding to augment McCain's own.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with Jeff, which would be rare but probably not unheard of, but if McCain is the foreign policy candidate then it's an absolutely critical criterion for choosing a VP.
I'm ignorant concerning her, so I'm trying to learn more about Rice's politics, but all I'm seeing here are premature evaluations of her performance as SecState.
What does she actually believe?
If she's strong on defense, is she redundant considering McCain's weaknesses with much of the base?
How easy would it be for the Dems to slap that "running for a Bush third term" on McCain if Condi were on the ticket? Second, isn't Condi pro-choice? Hasn't McCain gone on record as saying that his VP must be pro-life? Do we even really know how conservative Condi is? I don't.
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
A pro illegal alien amnesty, anti border security, pro abortion, anti Israel ticket.
For which party???
Republican.
Swell. Just swell.
You captured my thoughts on this exactly. I am already extremely unhappy with the prospect of voting for McCain and then we add another liberal to the ticket?
I live in the DC area, and actually was at that ATR meeting. And I don't understand what all the fuss is about.
Rice was asked about her future plans there, and she said something along the lines of she planned to go home to CA. (I forget her exact words, I am afraid.) In fact, my impression upon leaving the meeting was that she was not at all interested in the position of VP.
PS: I hope I am not revealing any super secretive information here, but this was just my impression of her statements at the meeting. I have no other inside information.
Looks like Condi is re-confirming her desire to go back to Stanford.
Looks like ABC News and Dan Senor were just wrong, ah the infallibility of pundits.
That woman should be running for President, not VP.
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