[kevin fortuna]

what does everyone think about a potential condi ticket? i know it's WAY early, and there's a ton of work to do before picking the next candidate, but it's fun to speculate.

check out one thing about this WP article - a favorite tactic of stealth editorializing by the MSM: read the lead sentence of the third para. they're already setting condi up for a fall w/ the base, trying to get her to nix herself before she even gets started.

[Enterprise]

I would urge any given conservative candidate to reflect upon something very deeply. As you meet our Military forces who mean so much to us, and who have accomplished so much and suffered so deeply, keep one thing in mind:

"This is the unaborted generation."

[yarddog]

Is there such a thing as mildly dead?

[zarf]

I'm voting for Hillary because Condi's pro-choice.

At least Hillary is pro-choice.< /sarc>

[verity]

One note melodies are boring.

[need_a_screen_name]

There is a 700+ post (or there about) thread somewhere on this topic. It seems "mildly pro-choice" is worse than having Hillary in office to many FReepers. Go figure.

[hiredhand]

I wish one of our "conservative" leaders would just come out....not caring about what this world thinks, and condemn abortion for what it is...MURDER.

Mildly eh? We do a lot of shooting and hunting. As best I can tell, there's no difference between a stern, or a mild bullet hole. In the end, it's the same. 1200 FtLbs of torque applied to an object, by way of a small, high speed projectile.

Dead is dead....MILD my foot!

[Casloy]

I could vote for Condi over Hillary even with the "mildly pro-choice" statement. My big concern is what this does to the conservative base. Hillary will fire up her base by sticking to some core liberal principles (although don't ask me what those are). If Condi loses the conservative base with waffling about abortion she is going to have a tough battle. You can't rely on the anti-hillary feelings to win an election. You have to make people want to vote for you.

[Bahbah]

what does everyone think about a potential condi ticket?

She just ruled it out on MTP. I would, nevertheless, vote for her if she ever did run, from what I know at this time.

[eccentric]

could "mildly pro-choice" mean that RvW was extreme and the 'CHOICE' should be returned to the states? I could support that, if it means Rice would appoint conservative judges.

[Peach]

I think the Washington Post is trying to stir up dissent among conservatives and sell newspapers. Condi Rice has ruled out a president run in every interview I've seen where she's been asked.

And she just completed an interview with Tim Russert and couldn't have been more clear. She will not run. She doesn't want to run. She's not interested in running.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Mildly pro-choice falls into the same catagory as a little bit pregnant. If or when Dr. Rice decides to run, we will need to pen her down a little tighter on that subject.

[King Prout]

"mildly pro-choice" could mean: Tepidly in favor of retaining the legal availability of heavily restricted forms of early-term abortion, requiring parental consent, the man's consent, not allowing "at-whim" mid-term abortions and outright banning late-term abortions, etc... while at the same time finding RvW to be a grotesque usurpation of power by the SCOTUS which should be overturned, returning the matter to where it belongs: the legislatures of the several states.

[sitetest]

If she cannot find a way to come out and say clearly that she will work to overturn Roe v. Wade, then it is clear that she doesn't respect the Constitution, at least not sufficiently to gain my support.

If she does ultimately clarify that she believes that Roe is not valid constitutional jurisprudence, and should go, then I will support her, should she get the nomination.

If she wishes to then add that once Roe is overturned, she hopes that the individual states will still permit, in law, some legal abortions, even though that is not my own view, I would still support her.

But at a minimum, she must support the eventual dismantling or overturning of Roe.

[Clock King]

Single-issue voters are fools. Period. To the American people, abortion is way too personal an issue for the government or anybody to tell an individual what to do. And you better think hard: if Hillary wins and Bill becomes UN secretary, you can kiss the sovereignty of the US goodbye. What will the nation be like then?

[tkathy]

Condi is absolutely right. The government would be a disaster with laws banning abortion. Just wouldn't work if single issue people would think it through with big picture thinking. Would probably result in more abortions, not fewer.

[BibChr]

She says one fairly good thing and one very bad thing in this article.

The fairly good: "I am a strong proponent of parental choice -- of parental notification. I am a strong proponent of a ban on late-term abortion." She also favors a culture of life, and promoting adoption over abortion, so that abortion is truly rare.

The very bad: "This should be an issue pretty infrequently because we ought to have a culture that says that, 'Who wants to have an abortion? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or a sibling go through something like that?'"

That her thinking goes first to the woman who puts a contract on her child, and not the child who is poisoned, dismembered, otherwise brutally murdered, points to a fundamental cluelessness about this major issue. It's like saying, "Child abuse should be an issue pretty infrequently because we ought to have a culture that says that, 'Who wants to abuse a three-year-old? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or a sibling go through something like that?'"

Dan

[M. Dodge Thomas]

what does everyone think about a potential condi ticket?

Any candidate who does not take a strong anti-abortion stance is going to have a rough time in many Republican primaries.

More generally, way too early to tell. Rice doesn’t have much of a track record other than as an academic administrator (and that only as a provost) and a presidential adviser – no electoral or private sector management experience at all. FWIW, the academic scuttlebutt I hear is that she was a competent but not outstanding administrator, and that throughout her career she’s been *fiercely* ambitious - to the point where it really took some people aback. (That's true of a lot of people who enter politics, of course).

If you want to play speculative games, a race I would find interesting would be Rice vs. Obama... a match-up which would finally take race of the table, or put a big black elephant in the middle of the living room, depending on how you look at it.

One thing you could be sure of though: American politics would never be the same after that one.

[gpapa]

"mildly pro-choice"

Notice Condi did not say she was mildly pro-abortion. There is a difference.

Bush III / Allen in '08
gpapa

[NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961]

Nominating Condi would destroy the current,powerful coalition we have so painstakingly put together that has won the last three elections over 6 years. If she is pro-choice (kiss the southern Christians good-bye) she is probably pro-gay marriages.

The Christians gave us our margin of victory in the last 3 elections. Kiss them good-bye if you nominate Condi.

[BonnieJ]

Laura Bush said something very similar. I think it means more an acceptance of the 30+ years of the reality of abortion. I for one do not think it can be overturned and out of that is kind of an inevitability and possibly with some translating into "mildly pro-choice" although with tremendous disdain and reluctance. But it was a poor choice of words, no doubt about that.