Like Hendrik Hertzberg, I can see a case for John McCain picking Condoleezza Rice as his running mate, though I think Hertzberg glosses too quickly over the ideological difficulties such a pick would pose for a candidate who already has difficulty exciting the right-wing rank and file. What I can't see, frankly, is the case for Rice accepting the veep's slot if it were offered. The job would effectively constitute a demotion, since she would almost certainly be less influential as the VP in a McCain Administration than she is as Bush's Secretary of State (and trusted confidante). Moreover, while McCain would be effectively anointing her his heir, if she has designs on the Presidency - and I don't think she does, but of course you never know - I actually think she'd be better positioned for a run if she establishes some sort of non-executive branch identity (by running for governor of California, for instance) than if she spends the next four-to-eight years hanging around Dick Cheney's old digs.
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Condi For Veep?
11 Mar 2008 05:02 pm
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Comments (27)
by running for governor of California, for instance
Just by running? You can't seriously be suggesting she might win such an election.
Yes, PLEASE, let McCain choose Condi. The BO campaign can then replay all of her "No one could anticipate that..." lines with images of McCain hugging Bush.
Ross will vote for them, of course, because he's a authoritarian Christianist.
Remember, banning gay marriage will raise middle class wages... or something like that.
Is Rice even a conservative?
Hold on! Dubya's dad became a veep (and then...) from a background not so dissimilar to Condi's. She could go back and run for Congress, like H.W., but he was only a rep. for four years. Winning an election doesn't necessarily mean that much-- Romney began running for president after only two years spent serving as Governor. Having said that, I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket-- is the GOP trying to re-capture the Black vote? The war hawks are already placated by McCain's support of the surge.
It is true that many people seem to feel compelled to support Obama simply because they want to see a Black person become president-- but those people would be unlikely to vote Republican regardless of who McCain chooses as a running mate. Nonetheless, they're not going to stay home on election day, so what McCain needs to do is figure out a surefire way to get out the vote-- the way Rove & Co. did in 2004, using wedge issues.
McCain could benefit from someone who is a. younger, b. hispanic, and/or c. Christian or at least opposed to abortion. I think he should ask someone like Mel Martinez (and have Martinez pledge to secure the border to placate the Tancredo/Buchanan crowd).
> "Ross will vote for them, of course, because he's a authoritarian Christianist."
Of course. No doubt the Christianist authoritarians are keen to cast a ballot for a pro-choice black woman.
Just what we need in the race, another know it all, condescending (pun not intended or I would have spelled it that way) woman telling us what we should think!
since she would almost certainly be less influential as the VP in a McCain Administration than she is as Bush's Secretary of State
That would be ironic: going from a Secretary of State who's constantly overruled by the Vice President to a VP who's less powerful than the SoS.
I would advise against McCain's picking Rice, if only because he has to differentiate himself from Bush as much as possible.
A year or so ago moronic cons were yapping about Frist/Rice '08.
Apparently they're still no closer to reality than they were then. I'd love it if Rice got the nod. She'd sink the ticket even further with her credentials as the lying handmaiden of the war criminal Dumbya.
On the one hand, Condi could play the race card against Obama with impunity.
On the other hand, I've yet to locate a single person who actually likes her.
I'm surprised I've heard so little mentioned about Colin Powell as possibility.
If he'd do it, he seems like the no-brainer choice for McCain against Obama. Let the right-wing stew -- Powell would get McCain more votes than he'd lose him.
She is a lot better than these lightweights like John Kaisich that get brought up. But she is a dead end as a successor, since she's not that conservative, seems to have no interest in running for office, and isn't a very good politician. It would be like Obama picking some random well-regarded cabinet member from the Clinton admin. to run as VP.
America hates the Bush administration, and Condoleezza Rice has been a colossal failure even within the Bush administration.
Other than that, she'd be a fine choice.
McCain-Powell would have been unbeatable in 2000. Events, and catastrophic failures of judgment on both their parts, have intervened.
ban Johnson - From the speeches I've seen Powell make since he retired, he seems more of a pragmatist than anything. I don't see him joining up with McCain, even though that's McCain's rep.
Her running for Veep would give the media a license to dig into her sex life and I don't think the rank and file Republicans would like what they find.
Rice or Powell only make sense if Clinton is the nominee. Think about it, Obama's best attack line against McCain is Iraq, and having Powell or Rice just strengthens this attack. If Clinton is the nominee, McCain can send Rice and Powell to black voters and say "Hey, that b!t@# took out Obama -- are you sure you want to vote for her?" And there wouldn't be a single thing Clinton and Clark / Richardson / someone else could do or say about it. If a Dem gets less than 85% of the black vote, he/she loses. McCain/Rice against Clinton probably pulls 25% or more.
I think it has to be Powell rather than Rice, but I've been wondering about exactly the scenario Blue Moon lays out. Cripes, can you imagine? The Dems losing their most tried and true voters, and snatching not just defeat, but long-term defeat, from the jaws of victory? I guess it depends how creepy Southern Conservatives want to be about an African-American like Powell.
I am rather surprised that McCain has not already started hedging his bets against a Clinton nomination by going to the primary states that have already voted and speaking to black voters. He should go to Cleveland, Atlanta, Charleston, Richmond, etc. and say something like "Although I may be running against Obama, and have fundamental differences with him, he is an honorable man, and I am surprised how he has been attacked by daring to run against the Clintons. My friends, we cannot afford to have Clintons in the White House again..."
Every cabinet member, more or less, gets demoted once their president leaves office. Even if the same party is still in office, the new president often fills the top spots with their trusted advisors instead of the old guy's people. Being VP would be Rice's way of ensuring that she would still be in the White House. However, she seems to just want to go back to Stanford, where being the provost is still a pretty sweet gig. Also, doesn't she have some interest in being the commissioner of the NFL? Would you want to work for another 4-8 years on Iraq if you were her?
I am rather surprised that McCain has not already started hedging his bets against a Clinton nomination by going to the primary states that have already voted and speaking to black voters.
It strikes me that one reason you might not do that if you were McCain is that you do not want to spook the Democratic superdelegates. I think McCain would much prefer to battle with HRC in the general--given her high negatives and muddled position on Iraq, how could he not?--and so he doesn't want to do anything that might make the superdelegates more likely to vote for Obama, like threatening, at this point, the Democratic hold on black voters.
"McCain needs someone younger and strong on the economy. Rob Portman fits the profile, and he's part of the Bush inner circle."
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McCain is running *against* Bush's overspending, and he's going to pick Bush's former budget director as his running mate?? If McCain is looking for gravitas on economics, he'd be better off going with Chris Cox.
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"I think he should ask someone like Mel Martinez (and have Martinez pledge to secure the border to placate the Tancredo/Buchanan crowd)."
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Mel Martinez is constitutionally ineligible, as he was born in Cuba.
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"I think it has to be Powell rather than Rice..."
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Aside from all the other problems, Powell will be 71 years old by the time of the election. Is that really going to fly?
I'd like to re-affirm my support for a John McCain/Vlad Dracula ticket in '08. Necropublicans all the way, baby!
Yeah, run a miserable, never-elected failure with as much Bush baggage as Bush...
Why, how incredibly clever - the Republicans could suddenly embrace identitity politics again after the Alan Keyes and Harriet Miers "finessing that worked so well with a surpise "Two-fer" that would have the Democrats fucking trembling. (Not from fear, but the effort it would take not to piss in their pants from laughing at an unqualified joke guaranteed not to get a single black vote).
Maybe then they could really bring the election to it's knees by admitting that Rice was critical to numerous Bush failures, and had no clue on any domestic policy though it would help her from screwing up foreign affairs to flail on economic and domestic bread and butter concerns she reads off a teleprompter - but that she was actually a "3-Fer, a black femal lesbian who the public HAS to vote for to show their moral purity..."
Better yet, why not propose McCain keep Cheney on and make his campaign slogan "4 More Years!!"
Condi Rice - telling - only in that there are morons that actually think she would help any ticket. Many who are the same cynical and immensely stupid idiots that parachuted religious nutball Keyes into Illinois and who introduced Harriet Miers like she was Queen Elisabeth at her coming-out Ball.
I like David Wessel's idea: Bobby Jindahl for VP. He's young, Indian-American, Catholic, from the South, and a Rhodes Scholar. Yeah, he doesn't have a ton of experience, but neither does Obama. And having an Indian-American on the ticket could galvanize deep-pocketed Indian-American (and, to a lesser extent Asian-America) donors. It will also be a reminder that America isn't just a black & white country: if diversity is going to be worshiped, that diversity should include representatives of high-achieving minority groups like Indian-Americans as well.
> "Bobby Jindal for VP"
But imagine the headlines that Slate's and TNR's Bad Pun Generators will generate when the time came for President McCain to nominate John Roberts's successor...
Nope, McCain wants another maverick Senator buddy he feels confident with.
McCain/Lieberman 2008. Because they already know they don`t have a shot in hell.
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McCain and Rice would be too pro-Iraq. McCain needs someone younger and strong on the economy. Rob Portman fits the profile, and he's part of the Bush inner circle. Portman and Pawlenty are likely choices.
Posted by fougasseu | March 11, 2008 6:12 PM