Rice denies plans to run for VP without closing door on idea
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she planned to return to academics in California next year without closing the door on suggestions she might run for vice president.
Rice, 53, began by praising Republican presidential candidate John McCain when reporters asked for an airtight denial to rumors she hoped to campaign as his running mate in the November election.
"Let me just say, first of all, that Senator McCain is an extraordinary American, a really outstanding leader and obviously a great patriot. That said, I am going back to Stanford," Rice said.
Her spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on Monday that Rice was on leave from Stanford University in California, where she is a tenured professor in political science, specializing in Russian and east European affairs.
She was asked to match the denial of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman who, when asked if he sought the presidency in 1884, said: "If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve."
But Rice, the first African American secretary of state who also served as national security adviser under President George W. Bush, said, "I very much look forward to watching this campaign and voting as a voter."
She added, "I have a lot of work to do," citing telephone conversations she had already Tuesday morning with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, as well as with Pakistan's new foreign minister, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
"This is obviously a very busy agenda and here I sit with my Mexican and Canadian counterparts on hemispheric issues," she said with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa and Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.
"So I have a lot of work to do and then I'll happily go back to Stanford," she said.
Speculation over her plans has been fueled by a speech Rice delivered to the conservative group Americans for Tax Reform, an interview she gave on race and education in America and a magazine picture spread showing her lifting weights.
Analyst Steve Clemons, from the New America think tank, mentioned Rice's speech to the conservative group on his blog, "The Washington Note," saying several in the audience had asked her if she would run for vice president.
But she did not give a clear denial, he said.
Speculation also surged about her plans when Republican strategist Dan Senor told ABC television Sunday that "Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this."
McCain, while traveling to Kansas City on his campaign plane earlier this week, told reporters "I missed those signals" when asked if Rice was campaigning to serve as his running mate, according to the New York Times.
But McCain praised Rice as "a great American."
