The Strongest Vice-Presidential Candidate

Imagine being part of an independent political group, with the vision of newly sworn-in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as the next president of the United States. Imagine your North Dakota cell phone ringing while on a trip in Florida, with a voice saying they represent the NBC’s news division; asking for your assistance in preparation for Tim Russert’s interview for the upcoming weekend of March 13, 2005.

Imagine that this is the first news show featuring Madam Secretary and as the communications director, you want to impact the show. Now you can understand my excitement during the final segment of the show in seeing the historic pictures of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Q. Adams, Van Buren, and Buchanan on the screen, as Russert asks Sec. Rice, “Do you know what they have in common?”

As she claimed it was too early for this pop quiz, Russert explained that each of them held the post as Secretary of State before becoming the president of the United States. Of course, her banter of denial to run might have frustrated us, but when asked by Russert if our website should be shut down, Secretary Rice said “No, it is a matter of free speech.”

Like a “trial balloon”, the discussion of Condi Rice as a contender for the 2008 race became a world discussion. At various Republican events in Washington DC, as well as Chicago, Palm Springs, and Las Vegas; our “I like Condi” buttons became a way to start conversations. Placing the buttons on the lapels helped get the message out to hundreds and hundreds of people.

Over the past years, from the BBC to India and even Russian newspapers, from California to New York, numerous interviews of Secretary Rice have included a question about whether she would run for president. The national polls gave her top ranking with Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, showing she was credible and electable. We believe our efforts (along with other groups and websites) laid a firm foundation of support for her as a candidate.

Now that Senator John McCain will be the Republican’s choice, the media buzz is about Secretary Condi Rice as a vice presidential choice. This past April, on ABC This Week, Dan Senor made international news by telling the panel about Secretary Rice appearing at the Grover Norquist Weekly Meeting with between 100 to 150 conservatives and political insiders.

Senor said, “What the McCain campaign has to consider is whether or not they want to pick a total outsider, a fresh face, someone a lot younger than him, a governor who people aren’t that familiar with…the challenge they’re realizing is that they’ll have to spend 30 to 45 days, which they won’t have at that point, educating the American public about who this person is…the other category is someone who people instantly say, the second they see that announcement, ‘I get it, that person could be president tomorrow, Condi Rice is an option’”

While attending the recent National Rifle Association national meeting in Kentucky, I discussed this with Grover Norquist along with a high official from Michigan. Grover said that he met Senor for breakfast in Utah after the meeting, discussing the comments from so many people who saw Condi Rice as a vice-president, and even as an upcoming president. He was delighted that Senor’s comment has made worldwide headlines and that we can all share in the joy if she is chosen by Senator McCain.
Also in May, Secretary Condi Rice in spoke during the Silicon Valley conference held in California where Maria Bartiromo interviewed her. Their discussion was the prospect of new clean technologies to allow us to grown the economy and diversify our energy supply along with exploration at home, as well as the improvements in Iraq after the surge, and the $49 billion budget passed by the Iraqi Parliament.

It is a historic fact that Senator Barack Obama has won the nomination for the Democrats against so many others in a long primary. President Bush sent his congratulations to Mr. Obama, followed by statements from Secretary Rice in June. She said, according to the Washington Post, “As an American, it’s a great thing. As a black American, it’s a great thing.” Other reports include her comments about his nomination being a landmark for equal rights after more than two centuries of struggle. “We are a country that has overcome many, many decades of trying to make good on its principles. It just shows who we are as a country.”

Speaking of our nation, and how we look to the world, it has been represented by an African-American as our top diplomat since January 2001, and it is remarkable to have the faces of our leadership include those of a female of a minority race. I would like to call it the “Margaret Thatcher Factor,” the toughness which is noticed by many men from Georgia, Kentucky and other states.
Did you know, on June 10th, while we were voting in North Dakota, that Secretary Rice was making the case for the United States on tough diplomacy in a speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington DC?

Did you know that diplomacy includes support for Turkey’s effort to negotiate between Israel and Syria? Did you know that after her speech, Secretary Rice left for the International Donor Conference for Afghanistan held in Paris where she was joined by First Lady Laura Bush?
Next, she was off to the Middle East, to meet with the foreign ministers and leaders in Jerusalem and Ramallah to discuss the situation in Gaza where Hamas took over the region with military weapons and the bodies of dead Fatah politicans. Seeking to make a lasting peace deal is one of the most important items during these last months of the Bush Administration.

While the loss of a major figure in the media world has been devastating, the impact of Tim Russert and Meet the Press was deeply felt by this North Dakota lady. It was his willingness to listen to all voices along with the click on his computer doing research before his interview with Secretary Rice where he found all the grassroots efforts to promote and speculate on the possible chance of her appearance on the 2008 ticket.
With his documentation, no partisan attack can be made that all of this Condi Buzz was created to offset Barack Obama on the race issue. If she is picked as McCain’s vice president, it is because he believes she can be president if anything happened to him in the White House.
Now isn’t that the most important reason to pick a VP?