United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday disappointed legions of political junkies who had been salivating at the prospect of an all-woman race for the White House in 2008 between the secretary of state and Hillary Clinton, by insisting that she would not seek the presidency.
”I don’t know how many ways to say no. I don’t have any desire to run for president. I don’t intend to. I won’t do it,” Rice told ABC television on Sunday. ”I won’t.”
Rice, had, perhaps inadvertently, helped to fan speculation about an all-woman contest when she categorically declined to rule out a run for the presidency in an interview with The Washington Times on Saturday.
But by her second appearance on television chat shows on Sunday, it was clear that she did not relish throwing herself into the endurance test that is a presidential race.
”I know what it takes to run for president. I’ve watched it up close,” she told CBS television. She added that although she enjoyed her job in the Bush administration, ”one of these days very soon I am going to want to return to being an academic again and to get back to the California life, and the world of ideas”.
The more definitive denial on Sunday doused several weeks of speculation in Washington and on the internet that Rice would use her new, more high-profile post as a stepping stone to the presidency.
With no obvious Republican contender in sight — Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, and Jeb Bush, brother of the president and governor of Florida, have taken themselves out of the running — a number of Republicans had floated the idea of a Condi candidacy. That in turn raised the prospect of a contest with Clinton, a scenario that, despite the unconscionably early timing — the next election is more than three years and seven months away — had been making the rounds in Washington.
Although Clinton has repeatedly said that her political ambitions are focused on her campaign for re-election to the US Senate in 2006, the former first lady is widely believed to be positioning herself for a presidential run.
Rice, meanwhile, appeared to be on a parallel course. In her first weeks as secretary of state, she proved herself to be deeply image-conscious. Her press conferences with foreign dignitaries are conducted amid the chandeliers and columns of the state department, rather than on the steps outside, as was the practice under her predecessor, Colin Powell.
She has been generous with interviews on her foreign trips, and even been hailed as a fashion style leader, for the black coat and boots she wore during last month’s visit to Brussels.
The added visibility gave a boost to supporters who sought to add Rice’s name to a list of possible candidates for 2008 that include the former New York mayor, Rudy Guliani, and the moderate Arizona senator John McCain.
But Rice is not universally popular among her fellow Republicans. She has steered away from direct association with the religious right, admitting to The Washington Times that she is ”mildly pro-choice” on abortion. However, her denials will prove crushing to a dedicated coterie of fans who last week set up a website soliciting donations to support a run for the presidency by her. – Guardian Unlimited Â