there is some possibility of Condi Rice running for VP.
Does this help or hurt McCain? I don’t know for sure, which is why I’m starting this thread. On the one hand this might be one of those moments when African American voters are especially open to switching parties, especially if Hillary wins the nomination. And maybe even if Obama wins there might be a lot of women voters who are pissed off and willling to switch.
But it might appear to be a transparent vote getting scheme. Too little too late, tokenism and all that. And she may be very smart, but she’s never run for office, and there does seem to be some kind of learning curve here. Would she make a lot of rookie mistakes and hurt the campaign?
Two related questions: 1) Is there any chance that she gets the nomination? and 2) If she does, what happens?
I don’t see it would be tokenism to be honest…Condi is one of the current movers and shakers in the Bush administration. She is the Secretary of State for gods sake, and before that she was the National Security Advisor! Do you think her just a token figurehead?
Good grief!
That said, would she help or hurt McCain? I would have to go with hurt myself. She is pretty well tied to the Bush administration, and much as McCain has skirted and hemmed and hawed about his own ties to Bush I can’t see him wanting yet another indication of a Bush tie.
Yes, that would be the ultimate “political” move (assuming Obama wins the Democratic nomination).
It would seem that the best strategy is to wait until McCain chooses a VP before the Democratic superdelegates back Obama or Clinton.
Sorry if it came across that way. I actuallly have a lot of respect for her. I was asking if it might be seen as tokenism and therefore hurt the ticket.
Rumsfeld ate her lunch when he was in power, She was marginalized. I wish she could have stood up to him. She apparently was less hawkish and a real Bush confidant. Yet she lost to him for 3 years .
She’s said she doesn’t want an elected office several times. Of course people change their minds (or lie about their future ambitions), but she’s been pretty clear on that point.
In any case, McCain won’t choose her. He’s going to have a tough enough time separating himself from the current administration as is, he doesn’t need the number three person from the current WH on his presidential ticket. And she doesn’t really bring anything to the ticket other then her demographics, he already has strong foreign policy cred, adding a former (and arguably unsuccessful) NSA/sec of state doesn’t really help.
If Rice were to be the Republican Vice Presidential nominee the comparisons to the Democratic Presidential nominee would be inevitable; as a black candidate if Obama is nominated or as a female candidate if Clinton is nominated. In either case, the message will be “we think people like you are good enough for second place as long as a white guy’s in charge.”
And if McCain really feels the need to link himself with the foreign policy history of the Bush Administration, he should just go all the way and make Rumsfeld his VP.
I think there would be a number of problems with the choice of Rice for Veep. She’s too closely tied to Bush for moderates and independents, but she’s alo pro-choice, which would further irritate conservatives who already think JSM is too liberal. basically, I think she reinforces negatives for McCain from both sides. She reinforces the “McSame” image for non-conservatives, and she reinforces the “RINO” image for conservatives.
Methinks she would have a change of heart on the whole abortion issue if she became the VP nominee (after a lot of soul-searching, mind you.) Or she could claim that 9-11 changed everything.
That’s ridiculous. If she had ran for President and was then given the VP slot you might have a teensy weensy point. But she didn’t. So, you don’t. And you might want to reflect on which party appointed minorities to more high offices.
There’s a joke that asks how do you know how many Black Republicans there are? You go to the Republican Convention and count them.
Republicans might appoint a black person to a high office. But what do they do outside of the spotlight? This article compares the Democratic and Republican record on judicial appointments. George H.W. Bush, for example, appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court - and didn’t nominate a single other black judge for any appellate court appointment. Appointing one person from a minority group to a prominent post and then ignoring everyone else from that group is pretty much the definition of tokenism.
Those election year changes of heart didn’t work too well for Rudy or Romney. The Religious Right isn’t that stupid (although the tactic did work for Poppy Bush in 1980).
I think she’s been rewarded for being loyal to Bush with positions that she hasn’t always been qualified for. She’s had the titles but she hasn’t really been very good at any of those jobs.
And if she was put on the McCain ticket, the demographic calculus would be pretty transparent.
It would be ironic, though, if a black, pro-choice lesbian ended up being a Republican POTUS someday.
Condi would be an impressive vice presidential candidate - for someone else.
The real problem is that McCain is really only a foreign policy president. I actually think his domestic policies (‘don’t do much’, basically) are a much better idea than Obama’s interventionism. The the fact is, the electorate sees him as being weak on economics. And he didn’t help his case with that comment about needing to read some books on economics. That was a huge gaffe that’s going to follow him throughout the campaign.
Choosing Condi will essentially send the signal that McCain is ONLY about foreign policy, because really that’s all Condi Rice knows. And as the economy worsens and foreign policy concerns fade, that will sink his candidacy.
The opposing argument is that Condi can neutralize the woman/black issue. She can attack Hillary and Obama in ways that McCain can’t. When Michelle Obama said that she was proud to be an American for the first time in her life, Rice could let her have it with both barrels. Rice was actually right in the middle of the fight for civil liberties. She knows a hell of a lot more about what blacks went through than Michelle Obama does.
So I guess whether she’s a smart pick depends on what you think the real issues of the campaign are. Is it the economy? The War? Terrorism? Or identity politics? It should be the first three, but knowing the electorate it’ll probably be identity politics. We’re about to get treated to a rehash of every debate we’ve ever had on racism, sexism, and feminism. In that arena, Condi would be a formidable opponent.
But what I think McCain needs most of all in a VP pick is someone who can placate the base while providing some economic clout to McCain’s domestic policy. Someone like a Jack Kemp. (not Kemp himself, but that kind of figure. A policy wonk. Maybe Mitt Romney. Or John Kasich. If Steven Forbes wasn’t such a geek, he could even work.
Okay, what about if Obama selects her as his running mate?
ETA: SamStone, McCain might as well select Alan Keyes as his Veep. Pretty much the same likelihood of going to the Naval Observatory as he had of going to the Senate in 2006…
