Dick Morris is pushing for Condi to run in 2008 again with today’s article:
The most recent poll by Scott Rasmussen shows Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice moving up from 19 percent of the vote in the 2008 Republican primary to 24 percent. That moves her into second place, right behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who continues to lead the pack at 26 percent.
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who had previously been running second, slipped to 21 percent. Lagging behind were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) at 7 percent and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) at 5 percent. None of the others was above 5 percent.
It has been a good month for Rice, even as President Bush has run into a mass of troubles. Her favorability in the Fox News poll tops 70 percent, and her successes in negotiating an extension of American military bases in Central Asia and in working out an accord between Israel and the PLO on the Gaza Strip crossings demonstrated great effectiveness.
And, as Rice has been moving up, her potential competitors for the GOP nomination have been running into trouble. Giuliani now faces the possibility of an indictment of Bernard Kerik on allegations he took bribes during his tenure as Giuliani?s corrections commissioner, before the mayor named him to lead the Police Department. A high-profile scandal affecting the poster boy of the Giuliani administration will do the former mayor no good. Nor will Rudy?s support for choice on abortion, backing for gun control and support for gay civil unions help him much in the GOP field.
[…]All this inside baseball two years before the start of the campaign may mean little in the end, but it does go to show what might become the future dynamic of the Republican race: Non-candidate Rice scores diplomatic triumphs that raise her support and political attractiveness while the other contenders for the nomination are embroiled in the unseemly art of politics, facing the usual round of negatives, investigations and embarrassments.
Rice repeatedly denies any interest in running for president but may have to spend the next two years facing a boom in the demand for her to run. The looming threat of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rice?s excellent performance as secretary of state are kindling a boom for her candidacy akin to those that animated Dwight D. Eisenhower?s 1952 run and Robert F. Kennedy?s 1968 bid for the Democratic nomination.
Will Rice eventually be overpowered and convinced to run? I believe that this woman will do her duty to her country, as she always has. If it is clear that only she can defeat Hillary and the others who might be able to do so ? Guiliani and McCain ? falter early in the process, then she will run. If her supporters build it, she will run.
Please please please, if McCain is anywhere close to getting the nomination let her run. I will gag if I have to pull the lever for McCain.
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