C-Rice? As in, The Energizer?
That's what Drudge is saying, which means jack. Remember the Newt Gingrich / Rick Perry pact that was, for twelve hours, supposed to flip the GOP primary upside down? No? How about that story in 2008 about the factory that was printing Obama / Bayh bumper stickers two days before Biden was announced as Obama's running mate? NO?
We're entering that period of the race when everybody is putting out the rumor that best serves their own interests. And because every possible VP candidate is denying their desire for the job—it's part of the pointless theater of this stretch of the campaign—there's no restraining force to rumors, because denials look like affirmations.
Sure enough, Condi says she doesn't want the job—which means she must really want the job! (This is also quite a switch from the last time we checked in with the VP short list and gender issues.)
Rice does bring serious foreign policy chops—a nice change of pace from Ms. I-can-see-Russia-from-my-house—though I question whether anybody in the room when the decision to invade Iraq was made really has chops as opposed to baggage. Who on the right wants to re-litigate Iraq? Anybody? Moreover, does anybody with an R after their name ever want to hear the name [redacted] ever again? Kinda makes you want to not vote for them, doesn't it?
There's also the fact that Condoleezza has never campaigned before, for anything. Whatever Palin lacked, she was masterful on the stump. Rice can give great speeches, but can she handle 18-hour days of gladhanding and gaffe-hopping?
Then there's this:
On immigration, Rice has given speeches over the last year, publicly lamenting that the Bush administration couldn't get immigration reformed passed. Her favorite talking point? "When did immigrants become the enemy?"
That's not terrible; everybody but the most hardened conservative knows the GOP is tip-toeing from their own immigration positions, at least for the time being. However:
On abortion, she is well to the left of Romney, who in mid-life turned against abortion rights.
In a 2008 interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes, Rice described herself as "mildly pro-choice."
"I myself am someone who believes strongly in parental notification. … I'm against late-term abortion, which is, I think, really very cruel." But she said she's not for overturning Roe v. Wade. "I have not wanted to see the law changed because it's an area that I worry about the government being involved in."
See, that's going to be a problem. Abortion is a non-starter; it's one of the things that got Joe Lieberman nixed from McCain's ticket (along with every single other thing about Lieberman), and the past two years have seen the highest rate of anti-abortion legislation since Roe v. Wade passed, indicating that social conservatives' intensity over the issue is at an all-time high.
More to the point, one of the right's biggest fears about Romney is that he would sell out hardcore conservative positions once he cleared the primary. Again, everybody's making peace with the fact that he needs to move left on immigration, but given the fact that Romney's already switched once on the subject of abortion—he was pro-choice when in a blue state, conveniently—the very presence of a pro-choice running mate, not matter how "mildly" she feels about it, would send shivers down the spines of social conservatives. If Romney wants even a shot at the evangelical vote, which he'll of course need in swing states because that's part of what makes them swing states, he can't appear the slightest bit soft on abortion.
Alas, all of this is academic. Somebody could have seen a shadow shaped like Condi Rice. Somebody could have ulterior motives—maybe they want a super pro-life running mate, and think this is a good way to scare Romney into that decision. Maybe somebody just wanted to change the subject from [redacted]. I don't know; I'm speculating. But then, so is everybody else.
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