Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice looked to downplay speculation that she could be inching up Mitt Romney’s short list for vice president after her widely regarded policy briefing last weekend at a meeting of his top donors.
“I didn’t run for student council president. I don’t see myself in any way in elective office,” Rice told “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday….
When “CBS This Morning” host Charlie Rose pressed Rice, noting she hadn’t technically said she wouldn’t accept the offer to be vice president, the former secretary of state was more definitive.
“It’s not going to happen — and no,” she said….
Charlie Rose is being a useful idiot. So is everyone who reports this without noting that the scenario is preposterous.
It used to be that every time a new Republican won the presidential nomination, the pro-choice Tom Ridge, from the delegate-rich state of Pennsylvania, was mentioned as a possible running mate. It happened in 2000. It happened in 2008. Funny thing — Ridge never got the #2 slot. Nor, famously, did the pro-choice Joe Lieberman in ’08, even though John McCain really wanted to run with him.
And that was before the 2010 GOP/Tea Party takeover of many statehouses and state legislatures, which led to this:
Condi Rice as running mate? In the GOP? In 2012? Even though she says she’s just “mildly pro-choice”? Are you crazy?
No, you’re not crazy. You’re just being spun. You’re being spun the way you’re being spun when Campbell Brown writes GOP-propaganda op-eds for The New York Times on women’s issues. You’re being spun the way you’re spun by every public appearance of Ann Romney. You’re being told that Mitt Romney is a really awesome candidate for women to vote for. And that’s all you’re being told. (And, yes, he respects a black woman. That too.)
I’m not even going to get to the rumors about Rice’s sexual orientation. The abortion issue is a 100% disqualifier before we even get there. Everyone in the elite media knows that. And yet Charlie Rose and others play along, happy to be spun.
(X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)
c u n d gulag
But, but… Rice plays piano even better than Truman – surely THAT should count for something!
As for the MSM, being “useful idiots” gets them great spots on campaign planes, and invitations to the best Village dinner and cocktail parties.
And also on TV!
YIPPEE!!!
(Note:
Comment X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)
:-)
flukebucket
It is just something to talk about during the 24/7 news cycle. I was never really impressed with Condi anyway. I know she can play a piano and speak Russian but she just never really seemed up to any other task in my opinion.
DougJ
@c u n d gulag: @flukebucket:
Also an excellent figure skater.
Villago Delenda Est
This is the MSM’s not so subtle way of generating some buzz (which might result in a ratings boost) in the GOP veepstakes.
The Rmoney people have already hinted that the selection will be “boring”, but the MSM can’t have “boring”. They need excitement, in the form of a black babe wearing thigh high leather boots, appealing to the Strom Thurmondesque dominatrix fantasy market.
It’s all harmless fun, really, trying to get eyeballs to watch the Leslie Blitzer snoozefest.
DougJ
And don’t forget how much she’ll hope with the black vote.
schrodinger's cat
Charlie Rose is such a self satisfied smug bastard.
Bulworth
There’s still time for her to have a magical conversion moment on the issue. Although having two abortion flip-floppers on the ticket might be a bit much for radical reich to swallow.
Martin
@flukebucket:
Wouldn’t that make for the perfect VP then? See Palin, Sarah.
Punchy
Wouldnt a gay black female VP nommy just about explode every head in MS and OK?
ThresherK
I don’t know about Condi’s “soul”, so to speak. It may yet be “saved”.
When I saw her in the White House on election night 2008, everyone else looked like they were undergoing a prostate exam. The spit hit the party’s fan on national TV and she, alone, had an unhideable happiness about Obama’s victory.
schrodinger's cat
@Martin: I am no fan of Rice, but comparing her to La Palin is a bit harsh.
flukebucket
@DougJ:
LOL! Not as much as Allen West would. And by the way I think that might be the first time I have ever seen a blogger use hope in place of help. Happens all of the time in conversation here in the Georgia hills but I have always thought you were probably a Yankee and not familiar with that kind of thing. Caught me off guard. Made me laugh out loud. Glad it is lunch time here in the office.
Ash Can
Considering the fact that an enormous (if not larger) component of Mitt’s appeal to voters is that he’s not near, naming Condi Rice to the ticket sort of defeats the purpose, so I’m not betting on it myself.
(Edited to fix the STUPID FUCKING autocorrect on this STUPID FUCKING POS iPad.)
scav
Seriously, how can they choose anything but the blandest of bland — it’s the job of the VP to hover in the background on stage. So they’re looking for a wall-paper that will fade to background bethind faded egg-shell white paint, drying.
schrodinger's cat
@scav: I think they have to appoint a representative of the 27%, remember how much trouble Romney had with them during the primaries. Rand Paul maybe?
Culture of Truth
what was she doing on tv? is she selling a book or trying to create vp buzz?
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
I betting he picks Rick Santorum.
lacp
I don’t think Willard is shy about throwing folks under the bus. If he somehow came to believe that a specific VP candidate who was unacceptable to the base would be a winner in the general election, the 27% would be roadkill.
Tonybrown74
@Ash Can:
I think this is closer to the reality. Only because it’s much more obvious.
We can’t have more NEAR people remotely near the Oval Office.
SteveM
Culture of Truth: She’s trying to make you think “Romney — estrogen,” the same way Bush used to want to make you think “Saddam — 9/11.”
Amir Khalid
My guess is that Condi Rice honestly has no VP ambitions herself. Quite a few Republican men more likely than she have already ruled themselves out, maybe because nobody much fancies Mitt’s chances. This blog regularly discusses his many failings as a candidate. I’m guessing that Mitt is quietly begging somebody, anybody, to be his running mate. And that whomever he settles on will be someone who couldn’t get out of it.
Linda Featheringill
Condi doesn’t look like a “boring white guy” to me. She is not boring, she is not white, and she is not male.
Actually, even if you disagree with her on everything, you’ll probably admit that she is much more interesting than Mitt. That along would make her a poor VP choice.
Villago Delenda Est
@scav:
One of McCain’s problems in 2008 was that his veep pick drew bigger crowds than he did. He also had the problem of being “unacceptable” to the 27% during the primary season, and he thought that, if I can’t have my good friend Joe Looserman as my veep, I guess I’ll go with this woman from Alaska I know next to nothing about other than Bill Kristol thinks she would be great.
I’m sure you all can detect the fatal flaw in that last sentence.
At any rate, as the campaign wore on, the Diva became more divaish and at the end actually had the balls to think SHE should be able to speak a few words to the crowd at the concession speech.
Brachiator
Yawn. Actually the fact that Rice is not married is the disqualifier. Family Values and all that.
Must be a slow news day. Rice has no political base, no particular strengths that would make her selection as VP useful in any way.
Condi speculation is a grand waste of time.
LosGatosCA
Re:Condi
She’s be accepted to the Colin Powell window dressing Hall of Fame.
Re: Charlie Rose
Who can blame someone when they are invited to play in a game with the Kool Kids? Let’s prank the uncool kids by pretending we care about all kinds of things – other than the money that makes us the superior Kool Kids. Charlie gets to play, the Kids feel Kool and they get a laugh while the pranked uncool kids haven’t a clue what’s happening.
Cris (without an H)
Sure seems that way. Look at the last few decades:
+ Joe Biden — not boring, but sure doesn’t upstage the O
+ Dick Cheney — had to remain in the background, that’s where the controls are
+ Al Gore — robot (at the time anyway)
+ Dan Quayle — lol
+ GHW Bush — unflavored oatmeal
+ Walter Mondale — zzzzz
and on and on. Other than Dark Lord Cheney, I’d say the last VP of foreground quality was LBJ, or Nixon.
millekat
>am no fan of Rice, but comparing her to La Palin is a bit harsh
Palin hasn’t killed anything, yet. Well, there was that moose she needed, what, five shots to finally drop.
>“I didn’t run for student council president. I don’t see myself in any way in elective office,” Rice told “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday
Could we translate as: I don’t fancy facing the voters. Or anybody who is not intimidated by my hus—- ?
millekat
>am no fan of Rice, but comparing her to La Palin is a bit harsh
Palin hasn’t killed anything, yet. Well, there was that moose she needed, what, five shots to finally drop.
>“I didn’t run for student council president. I don’t see myself in any way in elective office,” Rice told “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday
Could we translate as: I don’t fancy facing the voters. Or anybody who is not intimidated by my hus—- ?
ant
didnt we send her ass off to mexico?
scav
@Villago Delenda Est: Especially if they think that it was la divine Palinista and her sparkly wink that landed them with the unruly rabble now now insisting they be unilaterally appeased just like the big money boys. Bland Paint Chip with a hell of a choke chain is my guess. Rabble friendly on the surface but this is the surface of a paint chip we’re talking about.
LosGatosCA
Re: Condi vs Palin
Depends on what dimensions you are measuring:
“I’ve asked why nobody saw it coming,” Ms. Rice said, speaking of her own staff. “It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse.”
That was about Hamas winning the West Bank elections. See dozens of other comments lamenting lack of foresight, imagination, due diligence, planning, thinking, acting, showing up.
Her job incompetence is indeed Palinesque.
However, at a dinner, her conversation likely is on a whole different level, if you value you that sort of thing as the head of the NSA or the State Department.
Valdivia
@scav:
McDonell from VA then?
Steve in DC
@Valdivia:
Doubt it, he isn’t all that popular here. VA is split between loving government spending in the wealthy liberal areas (lol Pentagon money and CIA money) and the Tea Party in the rural areas. McDonell is kinda screwed as he’s pissing off both sides of the isle. Though I’d be glad for him to be gone and off on the campaign trail.
Ash Can
@Amir Khalid: After seeing how many prominent GOP pols have played hot potato with the idea of being the VP nominee, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right. It makes me wonder if the nominee ultimately might be someone from outside of politics entirely (hilarity ensues) or some junior, relatively unknown pol with far more ambition than brains (hilarity ensues).
dedc79
She also had the temerity to suggest that Obama needs a more assertive foreign policy. The Bushites have no shame.
RossInDetroit
@flukebucket:
Hey, she’s one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Soviet Union, so back off! If the Cold War ever comes back you’ll be begging her to run for office.
NonyNony
@Brachiator:
Oh yes she does – the Punditariat in the Village love her. She has the right education, the right background, the right connections, and is apparently quite witty and charming, at least to them. It’s a small clique, but since they have 24×7 infotainment coverage to fill up, their opinions get outsized weight.
Villago Delenda Est
@dedc79:
By “assertive” she means “bombing the living shit out of whoever Bibi thinks needs it”.
Valdivia
@Steve in DC:
I am sure there’s no love lost for him in VA. But he would fit the bland and still appealing to the tea party requirements. Also–seems he has been openly campaigning for himself with those ads he put on tv in the state ahead of him campaigning with Romney.
Kane
Wasn’t she the National Security Advisor on 9/11? I’m sure most Americans can’t name one thing that she has accomplished despite all of her years in government and in the public eye.
Not gonna happen.
shortstop
Similarly, Willard is still seriously considering putting Rubio on the ticket. Uh huh.
noodler
VP has gone from being a stepping stone, or young’un (Quale) to being a peer (Gore) to being an elder statesman providing some parental supervision (Cheney, Biden) so it’ll be interesting to see what the next pick is.
I’m sure there’s a graduate level poli sci paper in that theory somewhere.
Actually, imo, I think peers work best.
The Dangerman
It’ll be someone being groomed for 2016; I’m calling Ryan.
Cris (without an H)
Following that series, the next VP should be dead. I say Reagan.
scav
@Ash Can: Somebody without an obvious political history (e.g. no Romneycare anchor) but “one of them” on the business side might have its appeal. They’re pre-shaken so can be painted with whatever 27%-friendly hue they feel they most need. Pre-Shaken and Un-stirring. I’ve now wandered into cocktails, with or without paint chips in them. Yup, this is me waving at you from way beyond my depth but now that it’s full of alcohol, it’s rather fun.
Steve in DC
@noodler:
You forgot Bush The Elder. He was forced onto Ronald The Crazy to keep him inline, fat lot of good that did.
Cris (without an H)
That was what I liked about Kerry-Edwards, despite how it looks in hindsight.
joeytomato
I don’t think we are being spun. I do think she has been looked at closely. I also think all her Bush baggage are what would make her a non-starter.
Kane
After Rubio and Rice, it’s only a matter of time before someone floats the name of Elaine Chao.
Davis X. Machina
@scav:
Herman Cain, but he’s crazy. And black. And crazy.
Donald Trump, but he’s crazy.
Carly Fiorina would be good, if she hadn’t nearly destroyed HP. Ditto, Meg Whitman.
There’s got to be a not-visibly-suffering-from-brain-trauma businessperson out there…
Brachiator
@NonyNony:
RE: Must be a slow news day. Rice has no political base, no particular strengths that would make her selection as VP useful in any way.
I don’t get the impression that the Republican Party (or even the Democratic Party) has ever selected a VP candidate on the basis of what might make a pundit happy.
A single woman with no significant political background, someone who is not the favorite daughter of any particular state, with no particular regional state support or appeal, no legislative record, etc. I can’t imagine Rice exciting soccer moms the way that Palin did.
And if Obama as an African American president makes some racists go nuts, the prospect of a single black woman being a heartbeat away from the Oval Office would drive them into a frenzy.
Apart from filling a long, boring summer, I’m not seeing any particular point in anyone even bringing up Condi’s name as a VP candidate.
But if Mitt did something as incredibly dumb as make Condi his VP pick, it would just about make my day.
NonyNony
@noodler:
You’re only looking at the tickets that have actually won the election. On the other side of the coin across the same timeframe we have:
Elder Statesman (Bentsen), Peer (Kemp), Peer (Lieberman), “Young’un”/Peer? (Edwards) and “Young’un”/Sideshow Attraction (Palin)
What this means I couldn’t say – the losing side seems to be following the opposite “progression” as the winning side, but I doubt it’s meaningful.
Villago Delenda Est
@scav:
Yup, I think you’ve captured their thinking pretty much. They don’t like having to appease the rabble, but realistically, they have no choice. So the veep is someone on the surface who can seem teahadist but in reality is firmly controlled.
scav
@Davis X. Machina: hauling myself up on a olive floating by no no no, more bland even than that, already bobbing in the news cycle, already too colorful, already etched. I was figuring they’d drag someone off a board-room somewhere, maybe somebody with state-sen experience or another son-of-a-governor credentials.
quannlace
The news just played a clip from a speech Romney’s giving somewhere today (Ugh, I can’t stand to listen to even a sound bite of his.)
Gas prices are going down even further, the housing market is going up for the first time in years. So, what can he blame Obama for? That old reliable- The Deficit!
OMG, he’s mortgaging your children’s future!!
RossInDetroit
Whoever shares the ticket with Romney has a good chance of getting clobbered. That’s a big negative for those considering a run for 2016. Narrows the field a lot.
NonyNony
@Brachiator:
I was going to say that I agreed with that, but then I remembered that McCain chose Palin based on the advice of Bill Kristol. So, yeah, maybe not to make the pundit happy, but they are apparently willing to listen to bad advice given to them by the pundit class. (Man what is it like to wield that kind of influence – the never be right with an opinion even once in your life and STILL have people follow your advice. Truly amazing.)
But I’ll grant you – Charlie Rose talking up Condi Rice is not going to get Mitt Romney to choose Condi Rice as a running mate. It’s not even in the realm of possibility. But it is a way to fill airtime.
Oh yeah. When this topic came up before my response was “the Universe does not love me enough to let that happen.”
Mitt is going to pick a nice, safe White Straight Protestant Male for his running mate – possibly from a battleground state on the off chance it shaves a few tenths of a percent into his column. That’s why I think Rob Portman is such a likely candidate for the position – he’s boring, he’s mainline Protestant (Methodist – so the base won’t be ecstatic at his choice like they would a Southern Baptist but there’s about zero chance that his church will have done anything controversial either), he’s boring, he’s from Ohio, he’s boring, he’s not going to upstage Mitt in any way, and finally he’s incredibly boring.
There is no way that Romney falls into the “Palin trap” and nominates someone who is more interesting than himself. He’s seen how that one turns out and it didn’t turn out well for McCain.
phoebes-in-santa fe
Also, Condi has a very nervous tremor to her voice. All the time. The same nervous tremor Romney has when he’s trying to convince people about something he really doesn’t believe.
Two whiny people on one ticket would destroy the entire electorate.
GoBama/Biden 2012
Ash Can
@quannlace: Romney has precisely jack and shit, and jack was last seen headed for the bus stop.
trollhattan
Has the FYWP filter been spun to 11 recently? I’m getting serially shoved into nothingness without so much as a “Your comment is in moderation” mocking message. (Was formerly well versed in the magic words.)
flukebucket
@Kane:
Yeah. I think she was promoted shortly thereafter.
I watched a short snippet on Rubio a few days ago. He has a very all inclusive theology. Catholic / Mormon / Baptist /. He tries to cover them all.
Villago Delenda Est
You know, on the thread title, I don’t think any of the political junkies here at BJ are buying the premise of a Rice veepship.
However, we’re not the general electorate, which really isn’t paying much attention to this crap, and won’t really be until the campaign actually gets going after Labor Day.
Roger Moore
@RossInDetroit:
No wonder Romney is interested in her. With his foreign policy advisers stuck in the 1980s, a Soviet expert seems like just the thing to shore up his credentials.
burnspbesq
It doesn’t matter. No one who is within the realm of possible nominees is fit to be President. That is the inescapable reality.
Roger Moore
@noodler:
Well, one idea for the VP has generally been to shore up the candidate’s weaknesses. For an experienced but colorless candidate, that means somebody young and dynamic (e.g. Palin). For a young and inexperienced candidate, it means an old, steady hand (e.g. LBJ).
Roger Moore
@Davis X. Machina:
Not one who’s going to want to put his name below Romney’s on the the ticket.
Ash Can
@burnspbesq: Hell, no one within the realm of possible GOP presidential nominees this time around has been fit to be president (with the sole possible exception of Jon Huntsman).
cckids
@Cris (without an H):
Win. Win, win, win.
Brachiator
@NonyNony:
RE: I don’t get the impression that the Republican Party (or even the Democratic Party) has ever selected a VP candidate on the basis of what might make a pundit happy.
I had totally forgot about that. McCain had totally lost his mind in listening to Kristol about Palin.
On the oher hand, Palin exicited the Tea Party, the GOP base and soccer moms. I can’t see Condi Rice as having the same impact.
But apart from this, I got no clue as to who Romney might select. Rob Portman sounds as likely as anybody else.
Martin
@schrodinger’s cat: Wasn’t so much of a comparison as a particularly low bar to be cleared. I think Condi is quite capable and a decent person. She’s the only potential VP name for the GOP that I’d worry about, even though I know she’d never get picked.
The Other Bob
@Ash Can:
“Edited to fix the STUPID FUCKING autocorrect on this STUPID FUCKING POS iPad.)”
You can shut that off.
Martin
@Brachiator:
Condi could legitimately draw in independents. There’s not much about her that screams ‘Republican’. I’ve not known her to deliberately go after any group of people (poor, minorities, gays, etc.) She comes across as competent and level headed.
Culture of Truth
Romney – Mannequin 2012 “It’s a No Brainer”
The Other Bob
@Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937:
Santorum? So they can lose BOTH home states of the ticket?
karen
Wasn’t Portman in the Bush Administration?
It’s either going to be Ryan or some total out of right field choice. (I know the expression is left field but this is the GOP so…)
I have some ideas:
Kris Kobach would cement the Tea Party vote.
Jan Brewer (one of the few females that would be acceptable to the Tea Party, Palinesque but more moldable)
Thune (don’t remember his first name)
Pawlenty (same)
John Kyl (Arizona again, Mecaa to Tea Partiers)
Daryl Issa (in charge of the hearings to target President Obama)
Yes Pawlenty and Thune are not such strange ideas but the others would give him the buzz he needs and would make the GOP vote FOR Romney instead of AGAINST Obama.
gnomedad
There’s a meme circulating among the wingers that the libruls somehow wouldn’t let the Repubs pick Cain or West or Rice for a spot on the ticket because this would totally expose how libruls are the real racists. Why libruls don’t use this awesome telekinetic power over Republicans more directly is a bit of a puzzle.
Ben Cisco
I call them agitprop-eds, saves time.
Valdivia
@Culture of Truth:
you made my day with that.
trollhattan
@flukebucket:
You know what that means: Secret Mooslim!
ChrisNYC
OT — I’m watching a Romney event in VA on cspan. It’s hilarious how you can so easily see the gimmicks that this campaign is trying to run to make his events look exciting. For a while there, it was a guy standing in the audience yelling, “WE NEED YOU MITT.” So clearly not a real voter, come on! Anyway, the VA gimmick is MR saying a bunch of things, “Does Obamacare help put people back to work?” etc etc etc. Hilariously, the answer is always a resounding NO! Awesome — MR in front a crowd yelling NO over and over. Nice image, geniuses. Way to run an optimism campaign.
catclub
@RossInDetroit: Burr.
NC senator. Effectively invisible. Not running this fall for re-elect.
I thought it was crazy at first, but makes plenty of sense.
No upstaging. Boring. NC is a state of at least interest for the race.
Ruckus
If mittens gets to select it will be a soulless YES man. One with no position of his own. Quite possibly a business man instead of a politician.
If he has to take orders and select someone else’s pick then it will be a total loon that the powers holding the strings(purse) think will get votes and/or will be controllable. And it will be a teatard politician.
Brachiator
@Martin:
RE: I can’t see Condi Rice as having the same impact.
She missed getting bin Laden early on. This does not speak well for competence.
She (and Colin Powell) have been slimed by Dick Cheney for not being sufficiently dedicated to the Republican Cause, and seems largely to have been pushed aside so that Cheney and Rumsfeld could run the show. This has to diminish her appeal.
What I remember most about her is her loyalty to Dubya. But apart from this, even independents (who are, by the way, not a monolith) would possibly associate her with one of the biggest foreign policy disasters in American history.
Also, given conservatives’ fetish with family values, the fact that she is a single woman without much in the way of family seems a big mark against her. And there is no need here to get into dumb speculations about her sexuality.
No matter how you look at it, the idea of Condi Rice as a VP pick seems to be little more than an idle fantasy to while away the summer.
But as I noted above, I would be delighted to see a relative blank slate like Rice chosen to be VP.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Condoleezza Rice spent her entire academic career studying the Soviet Union, but when an actual crisis arose in the former Soviet Union, she had no clue how to handle it. None.
For rational people, the fact that she couldn’t negotiate her way through a real-world crisis in an area of the world she was supposedly an expert on should tell you all you need to know about her capabilities.