March 3, 2005

Some of the buzz about Condoleezza Rice running for President.

Jonathan Karl of ABCNews queries Condoleezza Rice about running for President:
MR. KARL: You've seen some of the buzz about you running for President in 2008 and there's even a website, there's even a Condoleezza Rice for President song, a theme song.

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, really?

MR. KARL: Yes. Would you consider it?

SECRETARY RICE: No. I'm really respectful of those who do run for office. I know what I do well and I know what I like to do and I'm really going to try to concentrate on being a good Secretary of State.

MR. KARL: So you would categorically rule out running for President in 2008?

SECRETARY RICE: Jonathan, I'm going to try to be a good Secretary of State, and then, as I've said many, many times, there's always NFL Commissioner.

MR. KARL: Right. So it sounds like there’s a door open now.

SECRETARY RICE: Jonathan, I'm going to try to be a good Secretary of State and see if I can do this job well, and then we'll see if the NFL is open.

MR. KARL: The NFL and maybe something else. We'll see.

Thank you very much, Secretary Rice.

Despite the "no" after "Would you consider it?" -- I'm reading a "yes," because when asked it she "would categorically rule out running for President in 2008," she makes the classic move of saying I'm happy with my current job. That's exactly how a serious candidate would talk at this stage, right?

UPDATE: Here's a Village Voice piece about the Condi for President push. And here's that "Americans for Rice" website (which has an atrocious web-retro design!).

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