John McCain and Condoleezza Rice

What we've got here is a failure to communicate.

From the New York Times:

Is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice campaigning to be John McCain’s running mate? If so, Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said on Sunday that he had not noticed.

“I missed those signals,” Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign plane en route to Kansas City.

Nonetheless, Mr. McCain took a few moments to compliment Ms. Rice. “I think she’s a great American, I think there’s very little that I can say that isn’t anything but the utmost praise for a great American citizen, who served as a role model to so many millions of people in this country and around the world,” Mr. McCain said, adding that “her overall record is very, very meritorious.”

Mr. McCain was responding to questions from reporters about comments made on the ABC program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” by Dan Senor, a former military spokesman for coalition forces in Baghdad. Mr. Senor said Ms. Rice spoke last week before an unusual forum for a secretary of state: a meeting of economic conservatives led by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

“Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this,” Mr. Senor said.

Ms. Rice has said she was not interested in being vice president.

Mr. McCain, who has been critical of the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq, told reporters that Ms. Rice, who was national security adviser during the first year and a half of the conflict, bore some responsibility for the management of the war.

McCain says he hasn't picked up any signals from Rice. Is there some sort of a communication breakdown, or is this speculation about Rice's aspirations unfounded?

If Senor is right and Rice is actively campaigning for the VP spot, then that is a dramatic turnaround for her.

She was very consistent on insisting she didn't want to run for president. She's also been consistent when it comes to denying any interest in being the VP.

It's possible the "rumor" is being floated to test reaction.

For his part, McCain's complete dismissal of the suggestion that Rice wants to be on the Republican ticket seemed to indicate that he has no interest in her.

He did praise Rice, but he showed no signs that he actually wants her to be his running mate.

Beyond McCain being critical of Rice for her role in the Bush administration's Iraq policy, there's another reason I doubt that McCain would select Rice to be on the ticket. I don't think he'd want to share the spotlight with Rice. I think he knows that she probably would overshadow him.

But then again, if he thinks she would help him get into the White House, I believe he might overlook their differences of opinion. He might be able to keep his ego in check.

Anyway, I'm not convinced that she would be much help to him. She's too close to President Bush.

You can be sure that if McCain chose Rice as his running mate, the media wouldn't be fawning over her, playing up the significance of her candidacy and how far the country has come in terms of race and gender.

The lib media have spent years avoiding the fact that this brilliant African-American woman holds a position of tremendous power in a Republican administration. I doubt that the media would change their opinion of her.