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Palin-Rice ’12?

In four years time the nation's frustration with the Bush administration will be over, Condoleezza Rice remains one of the most compelling figures in our party.

By: Josh LeGuern (Diary)  |  November 14th, 2008 at 07:19 PM  | 

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The Republican ticket in 2012:

Sarah Palin for President
Condoleeza Rice for Vice-President

Think it’s crazy? Why shouldn’t Sarah Palin consider Condi for VP should she win the Republican nomination in 2012? Condoleeza Rice is a foreign policy expert, she’s served the first four years in the Bush administration as the National Security adviser and the next four as Secretary of State. Because she’s a governor, foreign policy will be one thing that the Obama campaign will hammer Gov. Palin on. Condi could step in and be a reassuring choice, much in the same way Dick Cheney was for Bush and in a different way, Colin Powell was for Obama.

She’s the most popular and probably the smartest figure in the Bush administration. She’s a moderate who conservatives are comfortable with. While libs will try and smack her with the neocon label, she’s been responsible from moving the Bush administration away from Neoconservative policies, back to the tried and true policies of diplomacy and partnerships with our friends.

The only thing that might stop Palin from putting Condi on the ticket is it would be the first ticket to feature two women. I say, who cares? If the two best people for the job happen to be women, why should that matter?

It’s unlikely, but it would be a powerful and dynamic ticket.

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COMMENTS

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  • mbecker908

    She’s run State like a Democrat. She has been an utterly pathetic SoS, second only to Colin Powell. As of late she seems to be closer to Obama’s positions on things like the ME.

    Condi Rice needs to retire forever from elected (though she’s never been elected to anything)/appointed political office. I’m sure she’d make a fine NFL Commissioner.

    Other than John Bolton and some judicial nominees that GWB didn’t have the gumption to defend and to press for a vote, I never want to see anybody who had ANYTHING to do with the Bush Administration in public again.

    And BTW, since Condi is decidedly pro-choice, I’m sure you’d get exactly the opposite reaction to her candidacy that you saw with Gov. Palin’s. It would let the air out of the base and we’d question Palin’s judgment, and rightfully so.

    • indym

      She was a historic figure for the last eight years. If Iraq and Afghanistan democracies grow in the next few years and the violence ends or is controlled her stature and that of President Bush will grow. She definitely will be an advisor to Presidents in the future, democrats and republicans. I would like to see Secretary Rice become the head of an Fortune 500 company, or head a sports league. I think she is bright, intelligent and will serve in a great capacity somewhere. I do not think it will be as a Veep though.

  • Common_Cents

    Trickle down politics won’t work. Many posts/blogs are trying to find our own messiah to save us from ourselves. They really don’t exist, especially for REPS and conservatives. We don’t own the media to keep perpetuate a messiah mirage.

    We have to do the work on the ground. Government and politics are reactionary not initiating entities. They will reflect the work we have done, they aren’t going to initiate the work we need to get done.

    If we have a groundswell from the bottom up demanding real conservatives someone will step up, probably distant from the Bush admin.

  • jsteele

    would you saddle Palin with Rice? Rice wasn’t even able to control the Arabists and commie sympathizers that permeate the State Department.

    I want to win in 2012 and Rice is a zero.

  • Doc_Holliday

    no need to play the politics of identity. and no, i don’t think Rice and Palin would be our two best candidates regardless of race/sex/ or religion.

  • Nelsen

    Based on your last comment how we need the two best people for the job in ’12, I think this disqualifies Rice. I think she’s a great person, but not right for VP.

    My Order of Preference Right Now: (Pres & VP)
    1)Newt
    2)Palin
    3)Jindal
    4)Sanford
    5)Huckabee
    6)Romney

    No’s – Pawlenty, Rice, Guiliani, and Christ

  • NoKoolAidForMe

    This would be an interesting choice, but we are ignoring the fact that Dr. Rice has repeatedly stated that she does not want to run for elected office – President, VP, Senator, etc.

    Another factor which I think is even more important is Rice’s political loyalties. She declined to endorse anyone this year, and when pressed on who she is voting for, she refused to state. There’s a good chance she is a closet Obama fan, and after this Powell and RINO meltdown, this is the last person we need as part of the 2012 ticket.

    Finally, Rice and Palin are cut from two different cloths. Rice is very educated and articulate, while Palin has an undergraduate degree. This would be a mismatch about as bad as McCain-Palin.

  • mom2oneson

    I wanted Rice to run as president this year.

  • KeyWestConservative

    has not only infected the Left, it seems many on the Right have a severe case as well. Saying things like, “I don’t want to see anyone associated with the Bush administration in public office ever again.”
    Nonsense.
    I agree contemporary history has not been kind to Bush, but the last word hasn’t been written. Imagine another horrific attack on our soil like 9/11, or even worse, under Obama. Don’t tell me the first thought running through your mind won’t be, “Damn, at least Bush kept us safe.” Or, “Damn, if only McCain had won.”
    History will show Bush to be a much better President than our myopic view now holds.
    Is four years too soon for Rice to overcome the lunacy of BDS? Only if Al-Quada, or Putin, or Achmadinijad, or any of the other world class nutjobs aren’t successful in their evil quests. If our enemies our successful we’ll be looking for change in 2012. Change we can feel safe with. Change we can sleep at night with. Change that kept us safe for 8 years.

  • Doc_Holliday

    and believe he was a good War President. He was never a movement conservative, he had his own views and tried to implement them.

    His failure to bring the American people along with him, ulike Reagan, was fatal. He was simply not a persuasive man. We true believers admired him, but he allowed his presidency to be framed by others, he often seemed to think defending his positions was beneath him.

    The left says he was the worst ever. They will say the same about the next Republican. He did defend the nation well, but his lack of party leadership has allowed the worst of possible outcomes. People used to ask if we are now safer than prior to 9/11, I can say clearly now we are not.

  • Section9

    … for Bobby Jindal.

    Look, you go with your best. I like Sarah, but Bobby is showing me a lot more.

    That said, we need to be working on Saxby Chambliss, Norm Coleman, the 2009 Off Cycles, and 2010. 2012 will take care of itself.

    Now Sarah could grow into a superwoman, but so far, Jindal is showing me both smarts and extraordinary leadership in bringing Louisiana back.

    A lot of conservatives, who really should know better, believe that Rice’s mission was to conduct a blood purge in the State Department and drive out the liberals.

    That would have left Rice with no State Department. Rice wasn’t a fool; she worked with the Department she had been left with. State will always be infested with Democrats. That just is what it is.

    That said, she successfully reoriented much of our diplomacy towards the Pacific, India, Australia, Vietnam, and Japan. Korea remains a wash, but it always was going to remain a wash because the American people aren’t willing to risk a war. Iran remains out to the jury until Iraq is truly won.

    The Middle East remains where it always was: an insoluable problem that we need to leave alone.

    Rice would be a valuable addition to a Jindal ticket, or Sarah, if she bones up and wins. You go with wisdom and endurance, and Rice has got both.

  • mbecker908
    1. With respect to her time at State, she’s done a crappy job. Not just letting the current inmates in the asylum run wild, but with the policies she’s fronted.
    2. She’s never been elected to anything.
    3. She’s pro-choice.
    4. She’s tied at the hip to GWB.
    5. We have no clue what she stands for outside of her limited defense of GWB’s policies.
    6. She has no executive experience (and SoS doesn’t count).

    She’d make a damn fine Commissioner of the NFL. She’ll never be a candidate for elected office, or you’re looking at another big loss.

    The only place Rice is valuable is in retirement.

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  • NightTwister

    Maybe she can turn things around there. Lord knows she didn’t as SoS.

  • Whitfox

    But when did that become more than a minimum standard for an American president? Heck, Carter kept us safe.

    While it’s shameful that some modern Democrats can’t even hold up to Carter’s standard, that doesn’t mean that Bush was a good president. What we did in Iraq, and not in Iran, was a strategic disaster. It came close to a tactical disaster, save that a stunning ’06 defeat finally got Bush to commit more troops. As for domestic policies, his problems weren’t limited to high spending. Letting the housing bubble go through its course was bad. The Paulson Plan was worse, especially with its likely implications for the future.

    Doesn’t mean that I regret voting for Bush, or that good people weren’t in the Administration. But being a Bush appointee isn’t an automatic positive.

  • mbecker908

    And he also laid the foundation for Obama’s ascent to power. His unwillingness to defend his (correct) policies against lies and deceit from the left allowed them to carry the day, not just in the elections, but in people’s perception of what the right policies should be, pretty much across the board.

    I voted for GWB twice and would again given the same Dem nominees.

    That said, there is no excusing the fact that GWB was hiding under his desk in the Oval Office taking absolutely no leadership role in anything for the last five or six years. Next year, after the inauguration, I’ll write in more detail on just why I think Jimmy Carter has to be worried about his place in history as the worst President of the 20th Century.

    And, I hope to never again see anyone connected the eight year disaster that was the Bush Administration showing up on the public stage. That goes especially for Condi Rice and Colin Powell. BTW, I think it’s very instructive that Powell not only endorsed BO, but is being considered for a couple of Cabinet positions. If he’s nominated, he should be (but won’t be) opposed by every Senate Republican.

  • Section9

    A lot of conservatives didn’t get this in their inability to understand what she was doing. For every hit piece that came out of the Weekly Standard or the National Review, I saw a conservative movement that refused to hold people like Rumsfeld and Cheney accountable for refusing to pursue decisive war.

    She inherited a nation that had been exhausted, and divided, by inconclusive war, pursued by a conservative government. This was accentuated by the loss of domestic support at home in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You simply cannot divorce diplomacy from this. This election was very much like 1952, when Americans rejected Truman and his necessary conflict in Korea for Eisenhower and an end to the war. The difference, of course, is that Obama is no Ike.

    Conservatives’ inability to understand that diplomacy exists context with a larger political reality leads them to support dead ends like John Bolton-whose diplomacy was fine for the pre-war period in 2002, but not for the muddled period of 2006-2008. That Iraq, at long last, became a success helped us in the long run, but the centrality of that conflict and the fact that the Administration was crippled and largely refused to defend itself against its critics forced Rice and others to pursue a largely defensive diplomatic strategy until Iraq could be turned around. The deeply incompetent Israeli Defense Forces didn’t help matters in 2006 as well; despite the apologias of some conservatives.

    Rice will be fine as a candidate in future if she so chooses. She would make a fine running mate for any conservative who values a realistic approach to the national interest and the long term health of the Republican Party. I know I won’t convince you-but growing the Party and the Conservative movement is the important thing here.