April 5, 2007

Romney-Rice in '08

A winning Republican ticket -- here's how and why:

The political pendulum still swings toward the Democrats as the '08 election approaches, favoring the candidacies of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards. All three of the top-tier Republican candidates -- Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain -- fall short within the spectrum of conservative voters, to say nothing of the electorate as a whole. Those in the second tier -- Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, etc., are seen as not ready for prime time.

With these dynamics in mind, as well as his own health, Dick Cheney resigns. President Bush appoints Condi Rice to succeed Cheney, which isn't such a stretch because as Secretary of State she's next in the line of succession after Speaker of the House (mental note: check with Al Haig about that). Likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney picks Rice as his running mate, citing the fact she's vice president anyway.

Rice's presence on the Republican ticket undercuts two core Democratic constituencies -- women and blacks -- in a year with a Dem ticket of Clinton-Obama.
Skeptics will counter that Rice doesn't want to be president, nor presumably, vice president. This is true to some extent, at least from what I've read and heard.

But anyone who doubts that Rice is ambitious hasn't been paying attention. And while Rice is not now seeking higher office, something tells me her disdain for that is exceeded by her opposition to Hillary Clinton getting elected president.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I work as a political consultant. Let's just say the Republican field isn't quite done.

Jack Coleman said...

Agreed, section9, far from settled. And if the Romney campaign keeps making missteps like it did over the extent of his experience as a hunter, far from what I predicted here.

Anonymous said...

Romney was a total loser as governor of Massachusetts. A job he went after not for what he could do for them but because of its proximity to New Hampshire.

The governorships of Utah and Massachusetts were open at the same time and Romney has residences in both yet rather than run in a state as conservative as he is and, on the heals of his Olympic stardom, he instead runs in liberal Massachusetts and the immediately starts running for president.

This guy is about as shallow as a puddle on a hot highway.

Anonymous said...

Rice brings foreign policy expertise to the table, something that either McCain needs and Romney could use. If Hillary gets the nod from the Dems, the VP position becomes critical.