Rice for President? No Way.

By DHinMI

Since there are supposedly already nine websites dedicated to nominating Condoleeza Rice on the Republican ticket for President in 2008, articles like this will probably be common fare for political beat writers too bored to cover silly things like the war on Social Security or Tom DeLay's latest scandal.  [I know, I know, it's a bit hypocritical to criticize reporters for writing about a Condoleezza Rice presidential candidacy in a post about a Condoleezza Rice presidential candidacy.]:

During a discussion with editors and reporters at The Washington Times, Rice was asked, "Would you consider running for president in 2008?"

"I have never wanted to run for anything," Rice said in the interview published Saturday. "I don't think I even ran for class anything when I was in school."

Now I find that interesting, even in terms of Condispeak.  Notice that she didn't say she's not interested in running for president, just that she had "never wanted to run for anything."  Maybe I'm engaging in the tea-leaf reading-like exegesis of Alan Greenspan's obscure statements on interest rates, but her resort to the past-tense to answer a question about the future appeared to me that she wasn't saying no to the notion of running for president.

Well, it doesn't matter.  She wouldn't get the nomination.  Why?  Because there's no way that the Republicans will nominate somebody who is pro-choice.  When a party is so beholden to the groups opposed to women exercising their reproductive rights that they think nothing of promoting people who equate being pro-choice with being pro-terrorist, you have a party that cannot handle a pro-choice candidate.  And there's no way Rice could easily slip out of the view that she's pro-choice, since by her own description she's a "pro-choice evangelical" and "mildly pro-choice", both statements that have elicited derisive responses from zealously anti-choice elements within the conservative coalition. 

It's inconceivable that any pro-choice candidate could get through a Republican primary unless a slew of pro-life candidates canceled out each other deep into the primary season, and one pro-choice candidate slipped past them.  But if both Rice and Rudy Guiliani were to run for president, it would be them who would be canceling out votes, and a pro-lifer would nail down the nomination.  And even if the inconceivable happened, and a pro-choice candidate got the nomination, it's hard to imagine that they wouldn't lose 2-5% of the popular vote through defections of pro-life voters who wouldn't vote for a pro-choice candidate.  Losing that much of the general election vote would probably doom any chance that a Republican would have of winning against any decent Democratic candidate in 2008.

Comments

[Roxanne]

In order for the Neocons to maintain power through the next administration, they either need to find someone as dumb as Bush who they can control OR it has to be one of them. Rice is the only "one of them' who has a chance in hell. A slim chance, but their only chance. Well, unless they find another dumbass. Anyone seen Quayle lately?

[Kagro X]

Funny. I saw this in the newspaper while I was out grocery shopping. It was on the front page of the Washington Times.

My first thought, after the initial wave of horror, was that it was a non-denial denial formulated in the hopes that it would command her some modicum of respect during her trip abroad -- or at least during her next one. I figured it was designed to put some fear in foreign dignitaries, as in, "Oh my God, we might actually have to deal with this tool for longer than we thought," and then they'd have to hold their tongues.

I'm already scripting the "I believe the memo was titled..." spot in my head, though. Just in case.

[Kagro X]

As for Quayle, I believe that at this point, he has been entirely devoured by former staffer Bill Kristol.

So, what will happen sooner: Condi Rice is elected president, or TNH remembers my personal info?

[DHinMI]

Roxanne,

You may be right that this is a gambit by the neocons. But why don't you think Richard Perle could get elected? Is it all that time he spends at his home in France?

[Roxanne]

Sadly, no one who is Jewish or with a Jewish sounding name is ever going to president of these united states. And that eliminates a butt-load of neocons.

[Kagro X]

That's funny, Condeleezza doesn't sound Jewish.

[Roxanne]

Well, Rice said on two different shows this morning that she wouldn't run. So, be on the lookout for Dan Quayle.

[NG]

Can you say Lieberman?? I believe (unfortunately) that the 2000 election was so close that if you took Lieberman off the ticket and replaced him with a non-jewish sounding name, the Dems (Gore) would have won. Think of all the crap we could have avoided over the last 4 years. May be the biggest blunder in the history of US politics!

[DHinMI]

Quayle for President? Does that mean his former Dept Chief of Staff Spencer Abraham could find employement?

On the Rice thing, I wonder if some of this buzz is to take up time and attention from all the problems we're facing and to give her an upbeat subject to discuss. You know, instead of "hey, Condi, the Iraqis can't form a government, but what do you say about running for president?"

[NG]

Big difference between appointed after the election staff or cabinet positions, and president and/or vice-president in the actual election, but you know that! Even with state elected positions, it may not matter! However, for the presidential/vice presidential slot in an otherwise known close election, why, I repeat why, shoot yourself in the foot? Look what has resulted?

[Trapper John]

If Rice, Rudy, and Romney all were to run -- hell, if two of them were to run -- there's a non-trivial chance that the GOP could end up nominating Santorum or Brownback.

[Jules]

Let me get this straight: There are people who think the GOP will seriously consider nominating a black woman who may or may not be a lesbian? These people, if they indeed exist should call me. I have a bridge to Brooklyn to sell them.

[DHinMI]

The Santorum/Brownback ticket. Man, lots of fun imagery and allusions with that twosome...

[Trapper John]

Well, Brownback is the natural consequence of Santorum.

[MDK]

AGREED. BEEN TELLING (i.e., WARNING) ANYONE I KNOW -- INCLUDING RELATIVELY INFLUENTIAL DEMS I HAPPEN TO KNOW -- THAT THIS (EARLIER COMMENT BELOW) WILL BE THE STRATEGY! THE NEOCON "PROJECT" IN THE MIDDLE EAST IS TOO COMPLEX AND THE GOALS TO LONG-TERM FOR THEM TO BE OK WITH LEAVING THEIR MISSION IN THE HANDS OF A MODERATE REPUBLICAN. THE ONLY MODERATE WHO MIGHT DO THEIR BIDDING, OR PERSUADE THEM HE WILL PAY ATTENTION TO THEM, IS JEB BUSH -- BUT I BET THEY DON'T TRUST HIM. EITHER THE NEOCONS WILL FIND ANOTHER PUPPET, OR THEY'LL PUSH ONE OF THEIR OWN. THAT "ONE OF THEIR OWN" SIMPLY CANNOT BE CONDI RICE AS HER PERSONAL LIFE -- BEING A "CONFIRMED BACHELORETTE" TO RE-TAILOR A PHRASE -- IS UNACCEPTABLE TO MANY REPUBLICANS, EVEN IF MOST OF THE NEOCONS DON'T CARE AS MOST ARE NOT KNOWN TO BE RELIGIOUS RIGHTISTS. SO, THAT LEAVES WOLFOWITZ AND RUMSFELD, EVEN THOUGH WOLFOWITZ IS JEWISH. I BELIEVE THAT THIS IS PRIMARY REASON HE'S BEEN ELEVATED TO THE WORLD BANK -- IN ADDITION TO BEING VERY BRIGHT (INDISPUTABLE, EVEN AMONG US WHO DON'T AGREE W/ HIM). THE WB ROLE POSITIONS HIM TO BE TESTED AS A LEADER, HONE HIS "VOICE" AND HIS SKILLS AS A PUBLIC FIGURE AND PARA-POLITICIAN. ALREADY, HE'S AMOMG THE VERY FEW NEOCONS WHO HAVE ANY NAME RECOGNITION NATIONALLY, ASIDE FROM RUMSFELD -- BUT HE MAY BE TOO OLD TO BE CONSIDERED FOR PRESIDENT. AND, THE FUNDIES IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WON'T MIND HAVING A RELATIVELY CONSERVATIVE JEW B/C THEY ALREADY HAVE COALITIONS OF THIS KIND FOCUSED ON PUSHING THE CONSERVATIVE AGENDA IN THE "CULTURE WAR". TEMPTED TO END THIS WITH "MARK MY WORDS" -- THOUGH, ADMITTEDLY IT IS ALMOST TOO EARLY TO SPECULATE SERIOUSLY.

---------
In order for the Neocons to maintain power through the next administration, they either need to find someone as dumb as Bush who they can control OR it has to be one of them. Rice is the only "one of them' who has a chance in hell. A slim chance, but their only chance. Well, unless they find another dumbass. Anyone seen Quayle lately?

[MDK]

AGREED. BEEN TELLING (i.e., WARNING) ANYONE I KNOW -- INCLUDING RELATIVELY INFLUENTIAL DEMS I HAPPEN TO KNOW -- THAT THIS (EARLIER COMMENT BELOW) WILL BE THE STRATEGY! THE NEOCON "PROJECT" IN THE MIDDLE EAST IS TOO COMPLEX AND THE GOALS TO LONG-TERM FOR THEM TO BE OK WITH LEAVING THEIR MISSION IN THE HANDS OF A MODERATE REPUBLICAN. THE ONLY MODERATE WHO MIGHT DO THEIR BIDDING, OR PERSUADE THEM HE WILL PAY ATTENTION TO THEM, IS JEB BUSH -- BUT I BET THEY DON'T TRUST HIM. EITHER THE NEOCONS WILL FIND ANOTHER PUPPET, OR THEY'LL PUSH ONE OF THEIR OWN. THAT "ONE OF THEIR OWN" SIMPLY CANNOT BE CONDI RICE AS HER PERSONAL LIFE -- BEING A "CONFIRMED BACHELORETTE" TO RE-TAILOR A PHRASE -- IS UNACCEPTABLE TO MANY REPUBLICANS, EVEN IF MOST OF THE NEOCONS DON'T CARE AS MOST ARE NOT KNOWN TO BE RELIGIOUS RIGHTISTS. SO, THAT LEAVES WOLFOWITZ AND RUMSFELD, EVEN THOUGH WOLFOWITZ IS JEWISH. I BELIEVE THAT THIS IS PRIMARY REASON HE'S BEEN ELEVATED TO THE WORLD BANK -- IN ADDITION TO BEING VERY BRIGHT (INDISPUTABLE, EVEN AMONG US WHO DON'T AGREE W/ HIM). THE WB ROLE POSITIONS HIM TO BE TESTED AS A LEADER, HONE HIS "VOICE" AND HIS SKILLS AS A PUBLIC FIGURE AND PARA-POLITICIAN. ALREADY, HE'S AMOMG THE VERY FEW NEOCONS WHO HAVE ANY NAME RECOGNITION NATIONALLY, ASIDE FROM RUMSFELD -- BUT HE MAY BE TOO OLD TO BE CONSIDERED FOR PRESIDENT. AND, THE FUNDIES IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WON'T MIND HAVING A RELATIVELY CONSERVATIVE JEW B/C THEY ALREADY HAVE COALITIONS OF THIS KIND FOCUSED ON PUSHING THE CONSERVATIVE AGENDA IN THE "CULTURE WAR". TEMPTED TO END THIS WITH "MARK MY WORDS" -- THOUGH, ADMITTEDLY IT IS ALMOST TOO EARLY TO SPECULATE SERIOUSLY.

---------
In order for the Neocons to maintain power through the next administration, they either need to find someone as dumb as Bush who they can control OR it has to be one of them. Rice is the only "one of them' who has a chance in hell. A slim chance, but their only chance. Well, unless they find another dumbass. Anyone seen Quayle lately?