She's said repeatedly that she's not running, and I believe her. But if she did, here's a wild card suggestion. She could acknowledge that she's pro-choice -- but then insist, as a pro-choice, socially moderate, judicial conservative, that Roe was wrongly decided (the Krauthamer position). She could then pledge to nominate Scalia-Alito type judges, placing her rhetorical emphasis on the many issues other than abortion at stake in the constitutional debate.
Rudy Giuliani could do the same thing. That might scramble the deck.
Please see my #20. Some combination of Rudy and Condi would absolutely sweep the country, IMO. IF they could get past the primaries.
Rudy has already stated that while Alito is a fine selection, and to his credit defended him, Alito is not the type of Justice he'd choose.
There are two issues that currently dominate our base. Judges and the WOT. He's good on WOT, the best candidate in the '08 race on the WOT by far, but on judges his record would be probably akin to Arnold given his selection of whom should replace Brown. O'Connor types, though perhaps of better qualifications and minds.
Condi isn't perfect, but she's probably the best candidate though she isn't running. Simply because she's strong on WOT generally and hasn't completely sabotaged herself on the abortion issue. As could be seen, she has objectors because she declared herself moderately pro-choice but she hasn't defined it. Unlike Rudy, yeah, she could get away with the promise to appoint Alito's and Roberts, and say R v W was wrongly decided and come across a bit like a politician but not a flip flopping one.
The question then becomes, do enough pro-lifers trust her, or conservatives all around for that matter, to be strong on the type of Judges and pro-life policies the admin as advanced? Even if she might personally favor abortion in the first three months. Well, considering so many of them are willing to embrace Allen who is for stem cell researh and has his own questionable comments on abortion, I'd find it..interesting if they come out with a double standard on Condi.
I'm personally not that easy with Allen. I find him to float his finger far too often in the air. Condi seems more cosistent, but then Condi serves the admin and doesn't have a political record. How much of that is her view, and how much is it G.W.B.'s? Credible question.
Still, if the FR poll and my own family is a barometer they'd really like Condi to run. My dad also likes Allen. I'm more conservative then them, but I'd say on average they are pretty representative of the typical base voter that isn't as involved actively as those of us here. IMO, that means Allen, Condi who has said she isn't running, and Rudy are the frontrunners with McCain a frontrunner with the remaining Rockefellar types. No one else has distinguished themselves yet.