Candidate Condi?

Since a certain ex war hero and sitting Senator has the GOP nomie thing locked up tighter than the neighbors tool shed, talk turns to VP's. And in a killer case presented recently by Dan 'Pre Surge' Senor talk turns (again) to Dr Rice.

“Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for
this. There's this ritual in Washington: The Americans for Tax Reform, which is
headed by Grover Norquist, he holds a weekly meeting of conservative leaders --
about 100, 150 people, sort of inside, chattering, class types."

“They all typically get briefings from political conservative leaders. Ten
days ago, they had an interesting visit -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
-- the first time a secretary of state has visited the Wednesday meeting."

Great Satan's delectable Sec Of State Condoleezza Rice is currently 4th in line to the Pres. No one else running has that kind of 'expertise' and 'ready for the gig right at kick off' stance.

The New Yorker recently made a great PR for Rice and pointed out that being la daemoneoconess femme fatale extroidinare' is actually cool and one heck of a plus.

" To deal first with the obvious: Rice may be “only” the second woman
and the second African-American to be Secretary of State, but she is
indisputably the highest-ranking black female official ever to have served in
any branch of the United States government.

And with Rice on the ticket the Republicans could attack Clinton or Obama
with far less restraint.

By choosing Rice, McCain would shackle himself anew to Bush’s Iraq war.
But it’s hard to see how those chains could get much tighter than he has already
made them. Rice would fit nicely into McCain’s view of the war as worth fighting
but, until Donald Rumsfeld’s exit from the Pentagon, fought clumsily.

And it would be fairly easy to establish a story line that would cast Rice
as having been less Bush’s enabler than a loyal subordinate who nevertheless
pushed gently from within for a more reasonable, more diplomatic
approach.

Rice is already fourth in line for the Presidency, and getting bumped up
three places would be a shorter leap than any of the three Presidential
candidates propose to make. It’s true that her record in office has been one of
failure, from downgrading terrorism as a priority before 9/11 to ignoring the
Israel-Palestine problem until (almost certainly) too late. But this does not
seem to have done much damage to her popularity.

In a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken when opposition to the Iraq war
was approaching its height, she enjoyed a “favorable-unfavorable” rating of
nearly two to one. The conservative rank and file likes her. Though she once
described herself as “mildly pro-choice,” she is agile enough to complete the
journey to mildly pro-life. And she is a preacher’s daughter.

Choosing Rice would be a trick. Her failures would be buried in an
avalanche of positive publicity for a personal story as yet only vaguely known
to the broad public. (One of the little girls who died in the 1963 Birmingham
church bombing was her playmate? We didn’t know that!)

But the trick would not be an entirely cynical one. Her ascension, though
nowhere near as momentous a breakthrough as the election of Obama or Clinton,
would be a breakthrough all the same. In this connection, a kind word for George
W. Bush may be in order.

By appointing first Colin Powell and then Rice to the most senior job in
the Cabinet, a job of global scope, Bush changed the way millions of white
Americans think about black public officials.

This may turn out to the most positive legacy of his benighted Presidency. "

Dr Rice appeared tickled at the thought but pointed out she's fully booked at the moment and then plans to hit campus at Stanford after Great Satan's Prezzy Campaigns and the ensuing electile dysfunction has ended in inauguration.

"Senator McCain is an extraordinary American, a really outstanding leader
and obviously a great patriot. That said, I am going back to Stanford, back to
California, west of the Mississippi. I very much look forward to watching this
campaign and voting as a voter."

Dan Senor sticks to his guns.

“What the McCain campaign has to consider is whether or not they want to pick a total outsider, a fresh face, someone a lot younger than him, a governor who people aren't that familiar with."

The challenge they're realizing is that they'll have to have to spend 30 to 45 days, which they won't have at that point, educating the American public about who this person is.

The other category is someone who people instantly say, the second they
see that announcement, 'I get it, that person could be president tomorrow.'

Condi Rice is an option.”

Not only that, Dr Rice also made the short list for Great Satan's Hootchie of the Year 2007.