As the two remaining Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, continue duking it out with ever-dirtier tactics and language, you have to wonder what the McCain posse is up to as far as selecting a suitable running mate to serve as his vice president. Other one-time candidates are being batted about like Mitt Romney due to his fiscal conservatism to balance out McCain's strong national defense stance. But I would like to throw into the ring Madam Secretary of State Dr. Condoleeza Rice. In fact, the Republicans should have tried to draft Secretary Rice to actually run for President, but that is a different story for another day.

Fiscal Responsibility

Condoleeza Rice was the Provost for Stanford University. Dr. Rice served in that position for six years, serving as the watchdog for Stanford's $1.5 billion annual budget, and helping improve its overall fiscal standing.

She has also served on the boards of several corporations and charitable organizations, exercising her authority over both long-term and short-term financial planning for multi-billion dollar organizations.

Understanding the Issues

Condoleeza Rice earned her doctorate from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She has served on the faculty of Stanford since 1981 in international studies.

Her tenure in government service has included a stint as a special advisor on Eastern European issues during the fall of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. She served as the head of the National Security Administration before taking on the role of Secretary of State.

She understands race issues. Dr. Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1954 - and grew up having to deal with the race issues endemic at the time. Her parents attempted to protect her from the Jim Crow laws in force in Alabama while she was growing up, and her family left the state for Colorado when she was 14, not to escape what was going on - but to ensure her the finest possible education. She was witness to the bombings in Birmingham of Black churches. She experienced firsthand segregation and discrimination.

Rice was a card-carrying Democrat, and voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976, in her first opportunity to vote. During the Carter administration is when she switched from being a Democrat to a Republican. According to the Boston Globe, this switch was because of her love for the United States, and how badly the Democratic party misjudged the intentions of the Soviet Union. "I thought the Soviets were aggressive and playing us like a violin," she told the Globe. She switched to the Republican party in the next election, voting for Ronald Reagan.

Photogenic

Let's face the facts. Our current Vice President, Dick Cheney, is about as photogenic as a rock. Mitt Romney may cut a dashing figure - but all eyes turn to watch Condi Rice when she enters a room; partially from respect to the imposing intellect she has, and partially because she has stunning good looks which some have called akin to Lena Horne.

SOURCES:

White House Official Biography http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/ricebio.html

2 Wikipedia entry on Angelena Rice, Secretary Rice's mother http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelena_Rice

3 Boston Globe, December 21, 2000