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Could Rice run with McCain?
08/04/2008 08:45 - (SA)
Washington - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says repeatedly she does not "do politics" but her name keeps popping up as a potential running mate for Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate.
Rice's spokesperson tried yet again on Monday to quash reports
that Rice wants the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket but
blogs and political websites are still buzzing.
"I don't know how many ways she can say no," said State
Department spokesperson Sean McCormack of reports that Rice is
actively campaigning to join the Arizona senator's ticket.
"She has got to finish up her work as secretary of state
and then head back out West ... to go to Stanford. Remember,
she is still a tenured professor at Stanford and only on leave
from Stanford. She fully intends to go back," he added.
Courting conservatives
On Sunday, Dan Senor, a Republican strategist and former
spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority that governed
Iraq after the March 2003 US-led invasion, said Rice was
courting conservatives for the job.
"Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks,
campaigning for this," Senor told ABC's This Week programme.
Rice fuelled speculation when she attended a meeting at the
end of March with conservatives from an anti-tax lobbying group
run by conservative activist Grover Norquist.
Rice's staff forcefully rejected the idea that she attended
the Americans for Tax Reform meeting as a way to advertise her
interest in the vice-presidential job, saying she went to
discuss foreign policy.
'I don't do politics'
Rice reiterated her lack of interest in an interview with
The Washington Times last month.
"I don't do politics," she told the newspaper, repeating
that she planned to return to her California home when the Bush
administration ends in January 2009.
Despite her claims of disinterest, Rice has been dipping
more frequently into domestic politics and showing a lighter
side, such as sharing her exercising tips with Fitness magazine
and doing an interview with Parade magazine.
With the Washington Times, Rice aired her thoughts on
education and race in the United States, which has emerged as a
prominent issue in the presidential campaign because of
Democratic contender Senator Barack Obama.
Obama would be the first black US president if he wins
the Democratic nomination and beats McCain in the November
election to succeed President George W Bush.
Balancing out the Republican ticket
Rice is the top-ranking African-American and woman in
Bush's cabinet and some political experts see her as a way to
balance out the Republican Party ticket, which will face either
a black man, if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, or a
woman, if Senator Hillary Clinton of New York prevails.
But Rice's role as one of the principal architects of the
Iraq war and its chaotic aftermath weigh against her as
McCain's choice and even Rice has conceded it might be better
for McCain not to turn to a Bush administration official.
"It's time for new blood," she told The Washington Times.
When asked by reporters on Sunday whether Rice had been
courting him for the vice-presidential slot, McCain was
nonchalant. "I missed those signals," he said.
While conceding that she held some responsibility for the
management of the war, he praised Rice as a "great American"
who served as a role model for millions of people.
"Her overall record is very, very meritorious," said
McCain.
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