Mitt is not so daft as to pick Condi

If you think it’s a coincidence that Matt Drudge has put his siren on to blast the ‘news’ that Condoleezza Rice is the ‘front-runner’ to be Mitt Romney’s running-mate just as Romney’s campaign fends off fresh questions about his record at Bain Capital then, my friends, you’re charmingly naive.

This isn’t a serious proposition. It’s just a smokescreen. Romney may be many things but he’s not wholly daft. He’s not going to pick a pro-choice woman who is also, probably, in favour of gay marriage. Nor, alas, does Condi bring a record of achievement to the ticket. As Daniel Larison observes, in typically withering style:

Quite. Rice may have a paper record demonstrating some fitness for the position but her actual record is another matter entirely. (Equally, it might be worth remembering there’s no evidence she even wants the damn job.) And since the Obama campaign is likely to claim that Romney wants to take the United States back to the Bush years it would be strange indeed to pick a running-mate whose presence on the ticket justifies that attack and perhaps even confirms it.

It can’t be said too often that Vice-Presidents rarely make much difference to the ticket. Most of the time they don’t matter very much at all (hello Mr Quayle!) but when they do it’s because they confirm a “new direction” (Gore) or offer some reassurance a callow President won’t be over-matched in Washington (Cheney, strange as that may seem now). Picking Rice wouldn’t be as disastrous as selecting Sarah Palin but it wouldn’t be very clever either. What’s the upside? There isn’t one.