Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Romney-Rice?

Bill Kristol, who famously favored Sarah Palin, is "reading the tea leaves" and thinks Condi Rice might be on Romney's short list:
Rice wowed the crowd—and seemed to impress Mitt Romney, who was standing beside her—when she spoke in a featured role at a Romney campaign event two weeks ago in Park City, Utah. Rice is qualified, would be a poised (if novice) candidate, and would complement Romney in terms of area of expertise, gender (obviously!), and life experience. Rice offers an unusual combination of being at once a reassuring pick (she served at the highest levels of the federal government for eight years) and an exciting one. 
What's more, while the other VP possibilities have decent but middling favorable/unfavorable ratings(and are mostly unknown), Rice's favorable/unfavorable, according to a Rasmussen poll a couple of months ago, is a pretty staggering 66-24. Rice has said she's not interested—but Dick Cheney said he wasn't interested at this point in 2000. 
Adding fuel to the fire, Daniel Halper reports that Condi is sticking her toes back into political waters and raising money for ShePAC:
But, no, Rice is not (yet) throwing her hat in the ring. The email did not indicate that she had changed her mind--and that she would now accept the vice presidential slot on the Republican ticket if Romney were to offer it. What's more, it was a mass email, surely sent to many, many folks. 
Instead, Rice is going political, and fundraising for "ShePAC, a new group that is working to Support,Honor & Elect conservative women, to talk about these ideals," as Rice describes.  
This email does illuminate an important fact, however: Condoleezza Rice is now seeking to be a part of election politics. And seeks some sort of role this election cycle. 
Whereas before, certainly since the Bush administration (and, one could argue, while even in the administration, since her job was strictly not political), Rice strayed from politics, usually at more than an arms length. But now she wants in. 
What do you think?


4 comments:

Kartman said...

I think she would be a good choice.

Jayhawk said...

Far too close to Bush to be in any kind of race at this point. Might be a good candidate in 2016, but the Bush name is still too unpopular right now.

Tony said...

What happened to Marco??? "Crush" over?? Like it really matters who Mittens opts for...choose Yahweh, they'll still both be dismantled by the BO and JB.

Anonymous said...

Obama got elected partly because the American public was getting tired of the war in Iraq - a centerpiece of the Bush administration's foreign policy of which Condi Rice was a part. Because of this I think it would be a mistake for Romney to pick her as his VP. I say go with Rob Portman (Ohio).