Rice campaigning for veep?
Posted: Monday, April 07, 2008 12:52 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
White House, 2008
From NBC's Libby Leist
Condoleezza Rice's spokesman laughed this morning when reporters asked him if Secretary Rice has been actively campaigning for the vice presidential slot on McCain's ticket, as Dan Senor suggested this weekend.
"If she is, she's the last one to know about it," Sean McCormack said chuckling.
"I don’t know how many ways she can say no," he added.
He pointed to her most recent remarks last month to the Washington Times editorial board where she said flatly that she is "not interested" in the slot.
VIDEO: NBC political director Chuck Todd discusses all of the troubles facing the Clinton campaign and the chances that Condoleezza Rice might be John McCain's choice for vice president. When a reporter noted that "not interested" wasn't a firm "No" and that it might be time for Rice to make a Sherman-esque statement, McCormack said, "I'll pass your talking points along to her."
So what are her plans?
Rice has said she wants to serve as Secretary of State until the end of the Bush Administration and then had back to California.
"She is still a tenured professor at Stanford," McCormack reminded reporters.
*** UPDATE *** Here's some more from Leist... In the past two weeks, Rice has fueled speculation about her future with a series of apperances and comments that seem unusual for a Secretary of State.
She conducted a closed-door session on March 26 with a conservative audience organized by Grover Norquist, then the following day offered extensive remarks to the Washington Times editorial board about education and race in America and now she is featured in the latest issue of Fitness Magazine flexing her muscles and showing off her workout routine.
McCormack defended those moves as nothing unusual for Secretary of State Rice.
"I think if you look back at her tenure, in terms of her activities, you will find all of these activities perfectly normal and consistent with the way she has done her job over the past three years or so."
