Mitt Romney hasn’t yet chosen a running mate for the 2012 presidential election, but the public has sounded off on who they want to see on the ticket. The polls are in, and American Repubs want Condoleezza Rice.

According to a Fox News poll, three in 10 Republicans want Mitt Romney to select the former U.S. Secretary of State as his running mate in November. This gives Rice a huge majority on the right over other Republican figures likely to get the nod, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (who got 19 percent), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (8 percent) and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan (8 percent).

Though speculation is rampant, only a handful of people know just how far Romney is from picking a VP. According to NY Daily, the VP short-list is known only to search team chief Beth Myers, Romney’s wife, and Romney himself. “I’ll wait and see, too, what Mitt is going to decide,” Ann Romney said Thursday. “We’re not quite there yet.”

Though Rice indeed seems like a no-brainer to help energize Romney’s campaign, her selection could lead to some trouble from his base. According to Intermountain Jewish News, Condi’s track record on Israel is not so good – during the days of the Bush administration, she backed PA President Mahmoud Abbas, whom she described as a true partner for peace. There’s also pressure on Romney to select a true Conservative running mate, particularly on social issues like abortion (which Condi is flexible on).

Though the Right wants to pull Romney further right, they have to realize that right-leaning folk will vote for anyone but Obama. His best bet is a more moderate VP like Rice to grab as many votes out of the unpredictable and ever-elusive Independent base as possible.

Condoleezza Rice Top Of The VP Sorting Hat [Poll] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Condoleezza Rice has said that she doesn’t want to be Mitt Romney’s running mate, but that hasn’t stopped her from rising to the top of the Republican candidate’s unofficial list of vice president candidates.

Reports have surfaced for a couple of weeks now that Condoleezza Rice could be a VP candidate, and late last week the Drudge Report mentioned that she could be a frontrunner for the No. 2 slot. Now the former secretary of state is gaining more endorsements as the prospect of her gaining the vice presidential slot grows greater.

Condoleezza Rice would bring a lot to Romney’s campaign. She could connect with a broader range of voters, cutting into Obama’s African-American vote, and would appeal to female voters without all the baggage Sarah Palin brought to John McCain’s campaign. She also has foreign policy credentials to match Romney’s economic expertise, cutting into another Obama advantage.

Still, Rice could be a hard sell for conservatives, NPR pointed out. Her stance on abortion conflicts with Romney’s, and she still has some stigma associated with the unpopular Bush administration.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, took issue with Rice’s pro-choice stances, saying:

“Former Secretary Rice’s position on the sanctity of human life makes her an unqualified candidate for Governor Romney to choose as a running mate. Throughout the campaign, including at the Palmetto Freedom Forum last September, he has pledged to us in no uncertain terms that he would choose a pro-life running mate. We have taken Governor Romney at his word and therefore believe Secretary Rice will be ruled out of consideration.”

Ben Jacobs of The Daily Beast said that with the heat Romney has taken from conservatives for his record on social issues, he could have trouble picking Rice who has her own difficult record for conservatives to swallow. Jacobs wrote:

“Romney, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994 as a pro-choice candidate who would be ‘better than Ted [Kennedy] on gay rights,’ has had to backtrack considerably since. He has vowed to be ‘severely conservative’ and spent his presidential primary combating attacks that he was simply ‘a Massachusetts moderate.’ The result has left Romney uniquely vulnerable to criticism from the Republican base.”

Support for Condloeezza Rice is growing, though. On Monday she gained the endorsement of the Boston Herald, which said she could be just the person to help Romney attack the global financial crisis. The editorial summed up the case for Rice as this: “The choice of Rice would be bold but without being risky — really, what’s not to like?”

Condoleezza Rice Gaining Steam As Romney VP Candidate is a post from: The Inquisitr

Though Mitt Romney’s running-mate in the 2012 election is still a mystery, some commentators think he might pull a McCain ’08 and pick a woman as his VP. If he does, reports suggest it ain’t going to be Sarah Palin this time around – Romney is eyeballing Condoleezza Rice.

Most political analysts are saying that Romney is most likely to pick someone of the Ryan-Rubio-Portman-Pawlenty persuasion to be his running mate, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is reportedly being vetted for a potential nod, but a little tease from Mitt’s wife Ann that a woman was under consideration prompted a collective furrowed-brow from pundits with Bill Kristol thinking former secretary of state Condi Rice.

“Who’s the woman?” Kristol writes in an op-ed for The Weekly Standard. “It could be Kelly Ayotte or New Mexico governor Susana Martinez. But as much as I like both of them, I suspect Mitt Romney will see them as risky picks, lacking sufficient high-level government experience to unequivocally answer the question of whether they’d be qualified to take over,” Asserting confidently, “No, the woman Ann Romney likely has in mind is Condoleezza Rice, the former secretary of state.”

Rice would add a few interesting boosts to Mitt Romney’s campaign. Juan Williams opined that Rice would be a “political game changer for the 2012 race,” following early rumors of a VP nod. “She would be the first African-American woman to be on a major party’s presidential ticket, at a time when the GOP is losing ground with minority and female voters,” he wrote in an op-ed for Fox. Conservatives love her too, with Red State stressing “Condi is the right person for the number two place on the ticket.”

“Rice is qualified,” continues Kristol, “would be a poised (if novice) candidate, and would complement Romney in terms of area of expertise, gender (obviously!), and life experience. Rice offers an unusual combination of being at once a reassuring pick (she served at the highest levels of the federal government for eight years) and an exciting one.”

Kristol was also careful to mention he’s not campaigning for Rice: “I’m not advocating the selection of Rice. I’m just reading the tea leaves, and the biggest tea leaf out there right now is Ann Romney’s comment. It makes sense to take Ann Romney seriously. Cherchez la femme!”

Here’s a video of Condoleezza Rice being interviewed by Fox’s Greta Van Susteren. Do you think she has the woman-stones to make a good VP for Romney? Would her selection change the campaign or would it fall flat like McCain’s Palin-pick back in 2008? Sound off below!

Mitt Romney VP Rumors: Condi Rice Might Still Get the Nod is a post from: The Inquisitr