April 07, 2008 08:30 PM UTC

ABC NEWS Reports: Condoleezza Rice Is Pursuing the VP Spot; Update added by NEWSMAN

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• by: NEWSMAN

( – promoted by Haners)

MCCain/ RICE 08 –

Senor: Condoleezza Rice Is Pursuing the VP Spot

ABCNews’ Mary Bruce Reports: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is actively courting the vice presidential nomination, Republican strategist Dan Senor said.

“Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this,” Senor said on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE

See Condi’s response below…..

According to Senor, Rice has been cozying up to the Republican elite.

“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,” Senor said. “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.”

Senor explained that Rice’s history in public office would make her a prime candidate, especially in light of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s emphasis on experience throughout his campaign.

“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,” Senor said. “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,'” Senor added. “Condi Rice is an option.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit…

Now this is my idea of a winning combination.  Although I would have preferred ROMNEY/ RICE, McCAIN/ RICE works for me.

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE  

   ***Update; Rice Responds***

Rice Again Denies VP Aspirations

Apr 8   WASHINGTON (AP) – Condoleezza Rice has plans to head West after her time as secretary of State-not plans to be vice president.

She stressed Tuesday that she has no aspirations to join John McCain as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket this fall. McCain, an Arizona senator, has wrapped up the GOP presidential nomination.

“Senator McCain is an extraordinary American, a really outstanding leader and obviously a great patriot,” Rice said at a State Department news conference with the foreign ministers of Canada and Mexico. “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.”

Rice served as provost and taught as a professor at Stanford University. She said she’ll be busy with her work at the State Department before returning to the campus.

“You just asked about trying to complete the denuclearization of North Korea,” she told reporters. “I was (also) on the phone with Abu Mazen this morning about his meetings yesterday with Prime Minister Olmert,” she added, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

She said she also spoke with the new Pakistani foreign minister and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about Darfur and Kosovo.

“This is obviously a very busy agenda, and here I sit with my Mexican and Canadian counterparts on hemispheric issues. So, I have a lot of work to do and then I will happily go back to Stanford.”