Despite The Drudge “Scoop,” Condi Rice Is Not Going To Be Romney’s Running Mate

Matt Drudge spent much of the late afternoon teasing a purported scoop about Romney’s VP choices, and here’s what he posted around 7:30pm:

Late Thursday evening, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign launched a new fundraising drive, ‘Meet The VP’ — just as Romney himself has narrowed the field of candidates to a handful, sources reveal.

And a surprise name is now near the top of the list: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice!

The timing of the announcement is now set for ‘coming weeks’.

(…)

In recent days, she emailed supporters:

“2012 is perhaps a turning point for the United States.”

“The upcoming elections loom as one of the most important in my lifetime,” she warned. “I’m very often asked to speak about our current foreign policy and the challenges that lie before us. However, we, as a country, are not going to be able to address any of those international challenges unless we first get our domestic house in order.”

Developing…

Don’t believe it. It’s utter nonsense. The idea that Romney is going to pick someone who has never held elective office, who is pro-choice, and who has said repeatedly that she doesn’t want the job is absurd.

Quite honestly, given the rather obvious ties that have been seen between the Romney camp and Drudge this year, I suspect this may be an effort by the campaign to change the news cycle and distract attention from the Bain story.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Chad S says:

    Condi won’t want to explain why she lived for a long time during the Bush years with 2 other women in a 1 bedroom condo at the Watergate.

  2. Modulo Myself says:

    There’s nothing shrewder than hyping a dark horse Hail Mary and then selecting Rob Portman.

  3. Lib Cap says:

    Hmmm…

    A woman… As … GOP V.P.

    … after Ms. Palin.

    A very S T R O N G woman

    … after Ms. cCinton.

    And a ** B L A C K ** woman, at that.

    …after Obama.

    Well. I think it would be nice.

    I think the sound of southern heads exploding would resound all the way to the Canadian border.

    I, for one, would welcome this development.

    (… needz mor popcorn…)

  4. al-Ameda says:

    Condi Rice?
    God I hope so … let’s have her out there everyday trying to explain her WMD “mushroom cloud” remarks.:

    Rice: “The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t what the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” (CNN, 9/8/2002 interview with Wolf Blitzer))

  5. Console says:

    I don’t think Condi would ever accept a VP spot, but weirdly enough, she somehow managed to escape the Bush admin with her rep intact. She was a terrible national security adviser, terrible secretary of state… but people love her. She’d be a great pick, but like I said, I don’t think she’d ever take the job.

  6. Tsar Nicholas says:

    Political silly season + stale ratings + P.T. Barnum principle + rubbernecking principle = fatuous and specious veep rumor mongering.

  7. Scott says:

    @Chad S: I don’t care. Let’s don’t go down that road. There’s enough foreign pollcy issues to discuss without that kind of crap.

  8. Tito "Lucky" Serrantino says:

    @I woual-Ameda:

  9. Tito "Lucky" Serrantino says:

    I LOVE the ticket, Experience, Experience, Experience. GOD help the USA.

  10. LI Conservative says:

    She would be a worse disaster as VP than she was as Secretary of State. I am a pretty conservative guy. I support Romney obviously. I think anything is better than what we have in the White House today. But she is a large reason why we squandered almost a trillion dollars overseas “democratizing” these lowlifes in Iraq, and nearly destroyed the Republican Party. Bringing Democracy to Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, is a terrible play for America. Most of us know this, but our naive former Secretary of State and NSA thinks this is a policy objective of the United States.

    She needs to stay at Stanford and teach and leave the foreign policy to people with more practical views of the world. America is not going to be better off once these Muslim countries are run essentially by direct democracies. And does anyone care that she has as much experience on domestic issues as Barak Obama did? ZERO?

  11. muffler says:

    Condi as VP? Another GOP marketing and branding decision. A black woman… that’s the ticket… Look Condi was a failure and is part of the neocon machine. She brought us 9/11 – yes they ignored all the warnings and advise… she hyped the Iraq war calling and generally has proven herself part of the same club as Mitt.

    Be afraid… Oh and please let me know when condi will testify under an oath.

  12. Dave Schuler says:

    Check out Peggy Noonan’s column at the WSJ this morning. She supports the idea of putting Dr. Rice forward for VP, too.

  13. al-Ameda says:

    @Dave Schuler:
    I’m not sure what’s happened to Noonan these days, she used to be sensible. Maybe she’s attended too many WSJ Editorial Board meetings?

  14. Dave Schuler says:

    I have no idea. My point in mentioning the column is that I think it’s reasonable to think of Ms. Noonan as a Purveyor of the Prevailing Wisdom. If thinking of Dr. Rice as a possibility for VP has made it into the prevailing wisdom, it’s not just a sensationalist ur-blogger peddling weird conjectures.