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"Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Van Buren, and Buchanan were all Secretary of State before being elected President. (In Van Buren's case, he was SoS for part of Jackson's first term, then VP for Jackson's second term.) For a while that seemed to be the natural stepping-stone to the Presidency, which may be part of the reason for Jackson's anger when JQA made Henry Clay Secretary of State, after Clay had helped JQA win the election in the House of Representatives."

But every single one of those Secy. of State-turned Presidents were also elected multiple times to the House and/or Senate before running for President (and/or were elected to serve in the Constitutional Convention, for Madison and Monroe). Condi has the Secy. of State credentials but has never served in elected office.

I love Condi as Secy. of State, I think she's a great representative of our country, but she just wouldn't do as our nominee. The lack of electoral experience is one problem, but she's also pro-abortion *and* pro-affirmative action. Those are two of the things (along with massive uncontrolled immigration) that are destroying the United States, and it's a big reason that so many people have become Republicans in the past five years. The vast majority of GOP and independent that I know-- men and women, multiple races-- would not vote for Condi. Nor would I. She's excellent in the Cabinet, but not a particularly good idea as a nominee.

Of the 6 Secretaries of State who became President, all were before the Civil War, and the last of them was one of the worst presidents. Maybe something was lost with the democratization that took place in the Age of Jackson...the well-educated gentlemen who were first-rate Secretaries of State were no longer the kind likely to be nominated or to win election.

Two other former Secretaries of State came very close to winning the Presidency--Henry Clay would have won in 1844 if a third-party candidate had not diverted a small number of votes from him in New York state, and James G. Blaine probably lost the 1884 election because of Democrat voter fraud in New York.

A future Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, narrowly lost the 1916 Presidential election, but presumably would never have been Secretary of State if he had been President. Wilson picked a three-time loser in the Presidential contests for his first Secretary of State, but William Jennings Bryan had never come close to winning the White House.

I share some of your misgivings about Condi, but I would vote for her if the alternative was Hillary becoming President. I don't think Condi will be the Republican nominee in 2008.