Thoughts about the republican VP candidate in 2004

[Bosh]

I might be confusing her with someone else but IIRC Rice had a university administrative job a while ago where, to everyone's surprise, she gutted affirmative action so I don't think she's really for it too much...

[Dis]

yes even though she said affirmitive action helped her in the past, she doesn't support it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Condi would be a great VP... though I don't think Cheney will step down in 2004, and I don't think that Bush will ask him too.

Of course, Bush could rearrange his cabinet if he wished in 2004 and make Cheney National Security Advisor and move Condi to Veep.

[Ben Kenobi]

She'd be acceptable on foreign policy, but is she pro-life,

Big question for me as well. Where does she stand on this issue?

[Dis]

I doubt she is pro-life. She really has no need to reveal that information though. It isn't in her job description.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Dissident
I doubt she is pro-life. She really has no need to reveal that information though. It isn't in her job description.

If her job description is "leader of the United States" then it is in her job description.

[GePap]

No one who has never held elected office is going to be a VP or Prez. candidate, and Condi has never won an election for anything political. She would have to run for something else first. Plus, besides policy wonks, i don't think Condi has much of a following out there.

[Sava]

How about Ken Lay?

[HolyWarrior]

Jeb is not tainted

Jeb is tainted, both from savings and loan, and from all the election debacles. The reps. could do much better than him.

Nah, S&Ls are a non-issue. If it was an issue, McCain would never have been taken seriously as a presidential contender. And Jeb squashed all concerns about the election debacles in his reelection.
I believe the plan from the beginning was for Jeb to succeed W, with Cheney as the figurehead vice-president.

[Alexander's Horse]

Its about time the US had a President with nice legs.

[Lord Merciless]

Condi Rice was my university's provost from 1993 - 1999.

[Sava]

Sorry to hear that.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by GePap
No one who has never held elected office is going to be a VP or Prez. candidate, and Condi has never won an election for anything political. She would have to run for something else first. Plus, besides policy wonks, i don't think Condi has much of a following out there.

Aside from experience in campaigning, how does holding an elected office (in general) prepare you for the position of VP? It doesnt. A governorship is certainly an asset since it shows 'executive qualities' but simply holding a congessional seat (for example) just teaches you the inside-the-beltway games. Does anyone really care that Cheney was a congressman from Wyoming? Was Al Gore better prepared to be Prez from a leadership perspective because he had sat in the senate? The answer to both questions is no.

As for her lack of following, it'll grow when she's the VP. Bush will win (or possibly lose) the election based upon his popularity at the time. It doesnt matter who the VP candidate is from that perspective. Quick, for 10 points who was Trickie Dicks VP during the election and what did he do (stand for) prior to being VP?

[Kontiki]

I think SpencerH hit it right on the head in his last post. It doesn't matter who GWB's running mate is in 2004 - he'll win or lose the presidency on his own.

However, if the Republicans seriously want to look at "grooming" someone for an '08 presidential run, you can pretty much throw Rice (and Powell, for that matter) out the window. There's no way in hell the US is going to vote in a female or an African-American (let alone both) president any time soon, and not even much chance they'd survive the RNC.

[Adam Smith]

Originally posted by Boshko
I might be confusing her with someone else but IIRC Rice had a university administrative job a while ago where, to everyone's surprise, she gutted affirmative action so I don't think she's really for it too much...

IIRC the provost who followed her at Stanford said Rice did no such thing. There were some Latina professors who did not make tenure and tried to make it into an AA issues, but it was really about standards. Perhaps Lord Merciless has more info on this?

Originally posted by HolyWarrior
If it was an issue, McCain would never have been taken seriously as a presidential contender.

McCain walked away from John Keeting as soon as someting started to smell funny.

http://slate.msn.com/id/1004633/

The Senate Ethics Committee probe of the Keating Five began in November 1990, and committee Special Counsel Robert Bennett recommended that McCain and Glenn be dropped from the investigation. They were not. McCain believes Democrats on the committee blocked Bennett's recommendation because he was the lone Keating Five Republican.

In February 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee found McCain and Glenn to be the least blameworthy of the five senators. (McCain and Glenn attended the meetings but did nothing else to influence the regulators.) McCain was guilty of nothing more than "poor judgment," the committee said, and declared his actions were not "improper nor attended with gross negligence." McCain considered the committee's judgment to be "full exoneration," and he contributed $112,000 (the amount raised for him by Keating) to the U.S. Treasury.

I Bill Frist might work, its a bit too early to tell.
I think Charles Hagel would be a very good candidate. His only sins apper to be that he is highly intelligent and that he is a senator from a reliably republican state (Nebraska)