Rice for Veep?

The story--and it's probably just a story--is that she's lobbying for it:

ABC News' Jan Simmonds reports: John McCain said he has not personally heard interest from Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice that she may have interest in becoming his vice presidential nominee but that he has the "utmost praise" for and that she is a "great American."

Sunday, while appearing on ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the Republican strategist Dan Senor said that "Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this [becoming McCain’s vice presidential nominee]."

"I did not hear that. I missed those signals," McCain said. "I think she's a great American, I think there's very little that I can say that isn't anything but the utmost praise for a great American citizen, who served as a role model to so many millions of people in this country and around the world. But as I mentioned to you, we're not talking about the process because it just then gets into things that could easily to spill over into an invasion of privacy."

Asked whether Secretary Rice's role in the Iraq War should be taken into account, McCain said that all those who were involved in the failed strategy in Iraq "bear some responsibility".

First, it's good to know that John McCain is concerned about invasions of privacy.  Chalk him up as a vote to overturn the most odious aspects of the Patriot Act, and I suppose that means he's now against retroactive immunity for the telecoms.

Well, probably not...

But Condi, oh yeah, about her.  Pfft.  I don't believe there's any serious move to put her on the ticket with McCain, and I doubt she's lobbying for it.  Let's list some reasons why she wouldn't be on the ticket:

1. McCain's liability with many voters is the war.  Saddling him with one of the people most responsible for the disaster in Iraq wouldn't help him one bit.  He wouldn't be able to argue it's a defensible war that's been poorly managed if he put one of the war's architects on his ticket.

2. McCain's perceived weakness by a lot of campaign handicappers is that he's seen as out of touch on economic issues.  Rice gives him nothing on economic issues.

3. Well, there is one economic issue Rice could talk about; she could explain to the voters that if you want to have an oil tanker named after you--like, say the SS Condoleezza Rice, the best way is to serve on the corporate board of Chevron for several years.  America certainly wants more people from the petroleum industry in the White House.  Uh huh...

4. Rice has described herself as "mildly pro-choice".  Having her on the ticket would make the GOP's fundie base at least mildly apoplectic.  In fact, there's a decent chance that if McCain even attempted to put her on the ticket, that he wouldn't be able to get her nomination ratified at the GOP convention.  Democrats will never ratify an anti-choice running mate, and Republicans aren't anywhere close to letting someone even "mildly pro-choice" on their Presidential ticket.  

There are plenty more reasons why Rice won't be seriously considered for the Veep position.  For instance, we haven't had an unmarried president since James Buchanan.  You may remember him from history class; the end of his single term roughly coincided with the beginning of the Civil War.  If someone is going to break the barrier on unmarried candidates for national office, I doubt it's going to be an unmarried (mildly) pro-choice black woman associated with the most unpopular president in recent memory, especially since it would require her getting the support of the convention delegates at this year's GOP convention.  

So why is this story out there, circulating in the press?  Probably as a variant on that GOP theme of concealing their utter disinterest in concerns and needs of African-Americans.  

Every couple years or so the GOP talks about how they're going to reach out to attract African-American voters, and this time, by gosh, they really mean it!  Whenever they do it, they get credulous reporters to steno the story.  The GOP never does, of course, so why do they say they're serious about getting a larger share of the Black vote?  

The GOP says they're reaching out for Black votes to assuage the concerns of swing voters who don't want to be associated with a party that is perceived as uncaring about African-Americans.  

The McCain campaign, knowing the GOP rank and file as they must, will never consider Condoleezza Rice to be McCain's running mate.  But the GOP wants swing voters to think that an African-American could have a legitimate chance to be on a Republican ticket, so those swing voters don't wonder if voting for a Republican is tantamount to voting for not caring about the 12.8% of their fellow Americans who are Black.