The influential Drudge Report had an article the other day claiming that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the top of the short list for Vice President. What are we to make of this? Conservative bloggers have been in an uproar over this idea. Erick Erickson wrote in Redstate:
I don’t know who is hitting the crack rock tonight in the rumor mill, but bull shiitake mushrooms.
Condelizza Rice is pro-abortion. She worked for George Bush for eight years.
Rice’s legacy as a war criminal in the Bush administration will be hard to shake off. A lot of political capital will be spent defending Bush and abortion if Secretary Rice is picked. Conservative activists might be naive though in thinking that Romney wouldn’t pick Rice as a running mate. Presidential elections are less about ideals, and more about winning. Candidates will do what they need to do to win. In theory, the Republican nominee is supposed to unite all Republicans, not just ultraconservative activists.
Establishment Republicans on the other hand seem to like the notion of Rice on the ticket. The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan gushed at the idea:
Consider: A public figure of obvious and nameable accomplishment whose attainments can’t be taken away from her. Washington experience-she wouldn’t be learning on the job. Never run for office but no political novice. An academic, but not ethereal or abstract. A woman in a year when Republicans aren’t supposed to choose a woman because of what is now called the 2008 experience-so the choice would have a certain boldness. A black woman in a campaign that always threatens to take on a painful racial overlay. A foreign-policy professional acquainted with everyone who’s reigned or been rising the past 20 years. I should add here the look on the faces of the people who were applauding. They looked surprised by their own passion
Matt Drudge’s close personal relationship with Mitt Romney suggests that he would not print something false that could hurt his candidate. So if this is true, why would Romney pick Sec. Rice? The simple answer is that Rice is a black woman. Romney is struggling with both of these electoral blocks. But if he thinks that picking a black woman will help, he is even more stupid and condescending than John McCain was. Warmonger McCain though that picking a woman would help steal Clinton votes away from Obama. Obviously this failed miserably. If Romney thinks that women and blacks will vote for him because of his running mate he does not deserve to win.
My feeling on this is mixed. Picking a former Bush official is a pretty stupid tactic. Her involvement in the illegal Iraq war will take the focus off of economy. In fact her involvement in numerous foreign policy blunders will shift the conversation away from the economy. On the other hand Romney has not shied away from surrounding himself with former Bush administration officials. His entire foreign policy team is composed of Buh era war criminals. So picking Rice may not be a big leap for him. And again, why would Drudge print something that would hurt Romney? Team Romney said that they will announce their pick or Vice President in the coming weeks. So we will just have to wait and see.
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