Condi Rice for Mitt’s veep? You mean THIS Condi Rice?

Condi Rice for vice president?

Personally, I think it’s a great idea, but only if Joe Biden decides that he doesn’t want a second term.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

But wait … Drudge is reporting that she’s now a frontrunner for the Republican veep pick?

Hmmm. That would be interesting. She is obviously qualified for the position, and her selection would shake up the campaign in ways that no other potential candidate could match.

On the other hand:

She has described President Bush’s decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Treaty on climate change as a “self-inflicted wound,” and while she doesn’t support implementing Kyoto in its present form, she believes the United States must lead international action on that problem.

Rice has also discussed what she calls her “mildly pro-choice” views, defends Roe v. Wade and “can’t imagine why one would take these decisions out of the hands of the family.” She believes it “appropriate” to consider race in college admissions, says affirmative action is needed “if it does not lead to quotas” and acknowledges that she herself benefited from the program. As secretary of state, she appointed that department’s first chief diversity officer.

She supports civil unions for gay Americans and warns against mixing religion and politics, “because that is really when man is trying to use God for his own purposes.” She has also made clear her distaste for the Dick Cheney school of foreign policy, from which Romney has drawn most of his foreign policy advisers. In fact, she publicly defended Obama against charges by Cheney that he has weakened the country, nothing that “Nothing in this president’s methods suggests this president is other than a defender of America’s interests.”

Rice is on the record as recognizing that both tax increases and spending cuts will be needed to balance the budget, with an emphasis on spending cuts. However, she opposes spending cuts on foreign aid, which Romney has proposed, and backs “strong investment in renewable energy like wind and solar” to begin to wean the country off oil.

She believes most illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in this country, advocating “comprehensive immigration reform”. The United States, she said in 2008, “is going to have to have enlightened immigration policies if we’re going to stay this strong, competitive, open magnet for the best and brightest from around the world that we’ve been.”

And on Israel, the conservative Jewish Telegraphic Agency warns that ‘overall she’s a big advocate of a two-state solution who is closer to the Obama team on this issue than she is to where the GOP candidates and GOP base have been during this campaign season.”

Now, if the modern Republican Party is nonetheless willing to have a candidate with such beliefs on its national ticket — and if it’s willing to “let Condi be Condi,” rather than force her to do a full Romney and recant these and other positions — then I think that her nomination would be great for both the party and the nation.

Somehow, I’m a little doubtful that’s going to happen.

– Jay Bookman