Posted on 01/22/2006 6:57:13 PM PST by andie74
A presidential contest between the two famous women is just a dream.
EVERY couple of weeks, mostly on quiet news days, some cable news anchor rolls out a rumour that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, despite her protestations to the contrary, is planning to run for president in 2008.
A couple of populist political commentators known for their willingness to speculate on anything, no matter how far-fetched, are then rolled out to explain why Rice's emphatic and repeated denials that she would ever run for any elected office should not be believed.
Then the dream presidential contest for 2008 is laid out pitting Rice against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for her party's nomination, accompanied by a graphic with attractive photographs of the two women purporting to show that they are, respectively, their party's best hopes for victory.
Last week, Laura Bush provoked a small frenzy of Rice fever by saying that she would love to see Rice run for president, adding that Rice, a close friend of the Bush family, was "terrific".
Hours of television air time and acres of newsprint were then devoted to will-she-won't-she nonsense about Rice and, of course, inevitably, the Rice versus Clinton graphic — updated to take account of hairstyle changes to which both women are partial — was duly rolled out.
Rice again said she was not interested in running for president or vice-president or anything else but this was ignored because for the popular media a Rice versus Clinton presidential race in 2008 would be a ratings bonanza. Imagine, a presidential catfight.
Dick Morris, the former adviser to Bill Clinton who has turned against his former boss and against Hillary Clinton and who uses every opportunity to bag them both, is now a professional controversy provoker on Fox news. He is also a best-selling author with his essentially silly and exploitative book Condi vs Hillary, a title that is about as close to Catfight: Condi vs Hillary as even Dick Morris could respectably get.
Even apparently sober political analysts have ruminated on a Rice presidential run while managing to keep a straight face, even as they must surely know that the chances of a Rice run for the presidency are nil. Laura Bush knows it too. There is no way this conservative and cautious first lady would take the radical and unprecedented step of getting involved in Republican Party politics by endorsing anyone who she thought had a real chance of being a candidate for the presidency.
Rice may be the most popular member of the Bush Administration by a country mile, with an approval rating in the latest polls of about 60 per cent compared with Bush's 40 per cent and Vice-President Dick Cheney's 20 per cent, but her chances of winning the Republican nomination, even if she wanted it, are remote, at best.
It just might be that the conservative evangelical Republicans who insist that they delivered Bush the presidency in 2004 would countenance a female presidential candidate but surely not a woman who is known to be pro-choice and is single and childless and has never been married.
And some political observers say — but never publicly — that Rice would never run for any major political office, let alone the presidency, first and foremost because she would not be prepared to have her private life subjected to the sort of scrutiny that is now an inevitable part of the political process.
There is some debate about whether Americans are ready to elect a woman as president, with polls delivering mixed and confusing results, especially when it comes to conservative voters. If popular culture is a good indicator of public sentiment, then Americans may be ready to accept a madam president, though of a particular kind.
Commander in Chief, in which Geena Davis plays a vice-president who assumes the presidency when the president dies of a stroke, is a hit for the ABC network, a top-10 rating program in its first season.
Davis' president is tough, vulnerable, emotional, determined and overflowing with integrity. She is also a caring mother to her young children. She suffers regular bouts of guilt every time one of her children bursts into the Oval Office for a chat and she can only give them a minute or two of total attention. In other words, Davis might be president, but she's still a wife and a mother and feminine to boot.
Which brings us to Hillary Clinton, who has many qualities and has proved to be a successful senator who has the ability to raise millions of dollars in campaign funds. She also has Bill Clinton, the master politician of his generation, as her campaign manager, but a Geena Davis kind of president she will never be.
In the polls, Clinton consistently scores around 40 per cent support among Democrats, a long way ahead of John Kerry, who is around the 20 per cent mark, with the rest of the possible candidates in single figures.
This sounds promising for Clinton until you realise that Kerry is a has-been with no chance of getting another shot at the presidency and that the rest are state governors who, at this stage, with the election almost three years off, are mostly unknowns nationally.
Every Democrat knows Clinton, which means that 60 per cent of them don't want her as their candidate. And that's not to mention the rock-solid 40 per cent of the country, according to the polls, who would never vote for Clinton even if their lives depended on it. Americans might be ready to elect a woman president, but it won't be Condoleezza Rice and, most probably, it won't be Hillary Clinton. As for the catfight that people like Dick Morris are praying for … in their dreams.
Michael Gawenda is United States correspondent.
I am a woman, and would vote for another woman only if she shared my conservative values. I could not vote for a pro-abort less than enthusiastic supporter of Israel whether they were a male, female, black, white, or purple polka dotted.
Please give women more credit than voting for someone just because they are another woman. The DU crowd may do this, but I don't think many freepers would.
Yes. And it make me want to cry.
Hoping for Tancredo, but all bets are off.
I really have no earthly idea. Huckabee?
Hillary is no Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Thatcher was a lady.
Just tell me why a white republican is the wrong choice. You say "some paunchy Republican" as if this is a really bad thing. (and by the way, many women are paunchy) And also, nothing is GIVEN when it comes to women.
Yes, and with that attitude - in goes that being. When she ran for Senator there were those who said she couldn't win. I ranted and raved then and still they said she couldn't win. Don't underestimate this being. (Not woman, not human - a being!) Give her any kind of opening and that slime will run and win - and especially if we fight among ourselves and don't vote for her opposition candidate. I don't like McCain either but I'll be damned if I'll stay home and let her get in because my vote wasn't counted. At least my one vote will have been cast in opposition.
IOW...LOSER vs. LOSER....
The BIG loser, the American people....be afraid, be very afraid....(shudder)
She's NEVER run for any public office, she has less than NO interest in being president, and all of the talk about her running, on here, by various talking heads, and by the likes of Dickie Morris, is just so much hot air/wishful thinking. And I've said this, since the possibility was first raised, on FR; long before Morris ever even though about writing that silly book of his.
I don't trust David Brooks...he is the "designated" conservative in a very liberal newspaper...which makes him too far left...
It matters little, what YOU want to happen. And whilst we are talking about what YOU want, why do you want want someone ( Condi ) to run for the presidency, who has never in her entire life sought elected office, has less than NO experience to run such a race, and who would rather eat glass and and wash it down with poison, than do so?
It wont be McQueeg! He has NO chance to win the GOP primaries; none at all!
I share your sentiments, but the author made a good point about Condi not wanting to hang out her personal life in public.
I think her biggest PR problem is not being female or black. It's never having been married.
Best reason
For someone, to run for president, without EVER having run for elected office before, is the height of stupidity and hubris! And besides which Condi Rice doesn't want to be president.
Don't be ridiculous.
By all means, oppose McCain in the primaries, and work for someone who is a real conservative to get the nomination. Knock yourself out, brother, I'll be right beside you.
But if you can't hold your nose in the general election and vote for McCain, should he win the nomination, then you will end up in Empress Hillary's Happy Fun Re-Education Village, and you will deserve it. They are orders of magnitude apart. McCain is just plain wrong on a lot of things, but decent at his core. Hillary is evil personified.
-ccm
>>>If it's Hillaey vs Condi, Pat Buchanan will run and all those who think 'the country isn't ready for a woman president' will put Hillary into the White House.>>>
LOLOL I'm afraid you are correct. Shame though. That is just as wrong ethically as saying "The country isn't ready for a black president". Wrong.
>>>The only person to suggest a woman PMS'ing might start a nuclear war is you as far as I can tell.>>>
Are you kidding? I've heard that 'joke' since I was a little girl. Of course noone has come out and said it in a newspaper article or anything like that. So I suppose since I can't cite PROOF, we must assume it has never been said. Right?
>>>Please give women more credit than voting for someone just because they are another woman. The DU crowd may do this, but I don't think many freepers would.>>>
I wasn't referring to you. If you had read my post further down you would have noticed that I said that Hillary would have the hard left women's movement. Then she would have the "I can't wait until the next Sex in the City rerun, oh look a FEMALE PRESIDENT!" vote. Of course most conservatives wouldn't vote for Hillary and I never insinuated they would.
>>>Just tell me why a white republican is the wrong choice. You say "some paunchy Republican" as if this is a really bad thing. (and by the way, many women are paunchy) And also, nothing is GIVEN when it comes to women.>>>
I didn't say a white republican is a 'wrong choice'. I said the media is going to portray them to be the typical white greedy republican and the female as revalutionary.
>>>There are a LOT of American men and women, who will not, not, NOT vote for ANY woman candidate running for the presidency.>>>
Same goes for people who will never vote for a black running for president. Does that make them right? No.
And I was merely stating what I'd like to see happen. Are we not allowed to express opinion on this site?
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