Posted on 10/01/2005 5:31:39 PM PDT by blam
Rice supporters hope for Hollywood ending
By Philip Sherwell in Washington
(Filed: 02/10/2005)
For the self-styled "Condistas", it was too good an opportunity to miss. Devoted admirers of Condoleezza Rice bought time for a television commercial backing the Secretary of State for the White House in 2008, during last week's premiere of Commander-in-Chief, a new series about America's first female president.
It was the highest-profile move yet in a burgeoning grassroots campaign to persuade Dr Rice to stand for the nation's highest office, despite her public statements that she has no desire to seek the nomination.
Geena Davis plays the president in a TV series
Richard Mason, a Miami doctor and Rice supporter, established Americans For Dr Rice after talking with colleagues about the best Republican candidate for 2008.
The group has recruited several thousand members, has chairmen in key electoral states and is registered with the Federal Elections Commission. Its volunteer leaders, who call themselves Team Condi, are taking their cause to Republican meetings and conferences around the US.
They are conducting a "draft campaign", attempting to push Dr Rice into the political fray by demonstrating a groundswell of support for her candidacy. It is inspired by the draft movement that persuaded a reluctant Gen Dwight D Eisenhower to stand for the Republicans in 1952. He served two terms in the White House.
"We're just a bunch of average Joes who got together to try to draft a president and were amazed at the response," said Dr Mason. "It's become a second full-time job for many of us."
Crystal Dueker, the group's national co-chairman who is criss-crossing the country to promote the "Condi for '08" message, told The Sunday Telegraph: "This is people power, not a Washington DC-based group. We are ordinary people such as doctors, professors, small business owners and employees who have regular jobs. We see the future in need of strong leadership and diplomacy. And the only person we see with the qualities most important to us is Secretary Rice."
With the field open to succeed the Republican President George W Bush, Dr Rice's supporters hope that her sense of duty and patriotism will overcome her publicly stated reluctance to run.
Were Dr Rice to agree, her Democrat opponent could be another woman - Sen Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady. Supporters of both have taken succour from the successful launch of Commander-in-Chief, starring Geena Davis as an independent vice-president who takes over after a Republican president suffers an aneurism.
The premiere coincided with an opinion poll in which 79 per cent of Americans said they would be comfortable with a female president.
Davis has declined to be drawn on which woman she thinks would make a better president, although as a strong Democrat, her personal loyalties are clear. Rod Lurie, the show's creator, has joked: "If Hillary Clinton should get the nomination, we're all taking credit."
Mimi Melgaard, the costume designer, said that Davis's elegant, sartorial look owed more to the Secretary of State than to Mrs Clinton.
"Condi Rice is about the only woman politician with a distinctive style of her own," she said. "By Washington standards, she's cutting edge. It's nothing outrageous but she's willing to push the limits and she carries it off. Hillary was a bit dowdy in her White House days, although she seems to have a better stylist now." Ms Melgaard singled out the much-publicised outfit of long black jacket and knee-high boots that Dr Rice wore in Germany earlier this year, which prompted the headline "Dominatrix" in the Washington Post.
The Americans For Dr Rice commercial ran in New Hampshire, which is key to the election cycle as the first state to hold presidential primaries.
Team Condi makes a virtue of Dr Rice's single status, saying that the fact that she is unmarried proves she is a strong, independent woman. "And it's a breath of fresh air that she's never run for office," said Shari Demers, the New Hampshire chairman. "We're sick of all these slick, polished performers."
The prospect of a Rice candidacy is attracting attention from Republican strategists and conservative commentators. In addition to her track record as Secretary of State and previously National Security Adviser, they believe that as a black woman she would broaden the party's appeal to traditional Democrat voters. Her closest rival in internal Republican polls is Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, but his liberal stance on abortion and gay rights makes him unacceptable to many Republicans.
The debate comes as President Bush faces a series of political headaches. Already buffeted by the fall-out from the conflict in Iraq and the inept government handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, Mr Bush last week lost his most important legislative ally in Congress. Tom DeLay, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, stepped down after he was indicted for allegedly breaching campaign fund-raising laws. He denies the charge.
Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor is expected soon to complete his investigation into whether senior White House aides, including Karl Rove, the president's closest adviser, were involved in illegally leaking the name of a CIA agent in a row over pre-war intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes. Judith Miller, a New York Times journalist jailed for 12 weeks for refusing to identify her source, is now thought to have identified him as Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney.
I would be more prone to support her if she were more pro-Israel and more anti-abortion. Until that point you may count me as lukewarm at best.
The cabinet of this administration is as conservative as Ford's.....which is to say it isn't.
Heck, the president of this administration is to the left of Ford.
I LOVE Dr. Rice and admire her immensely. She is the best NSA and Secretary of State.
However, I have no IDEA where she stands on many issues from a ideology/policy standpoint.
Until I do, there is no way I can sign on to ridiculous notions of her being POTUS.
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