Windmills of my Mind

[morgan_dhu]

OK, political towns live on rumours, and from everything I've heard, Washington has elevated the use of rumour to spin and influence to, if not a high art, certainly the first line of both attack and defense.

So the rumour that's now hitting the US press is that Cheney, being implicated in the affaire de la Plame, will resign, to be replaced by Condolezza Rice. Who, one assumes, then becomes the favourite to run for the Republicans as President in 2008, becasue the VP is traditionally the favourite (if that's what they want to do).

Now... if it should actually come to pass (which I suspect is unlikely, and not just because high-ranking Republicans are already saying things like, "no, Rice can't be our candidtate, I think she's pro-choice") that Rice becomes the VP, what do the Democrats do?

See, my mind is already running in circles. Would this, if it happened, be a move to force the Democrats to nominate Clinton in order to nullify any gender effect (based on the Republicans believing that Clinton is beatable becasue now only is she a woman, and a Clinton, but she's the woman they were able to demonise quite effectively in the past)? Or would it be, even more bizarrely, be an attempt to influence the Democrats to nominate Clinton under the assumption that the Republicans would nominate Rice, but then, after the Dems are committed, would Rice withdraw, thus bringing the gender effect back into play (and I think the Republicans believe the gender effect would work in their interest, whether that is really true or not.)

Or am I having too much fun spinning the wheels in my head?

Comments

[ladydaera.livejournal.com]

OMG, you're making my head spin. You're quite ahead of me -- I haven't read anything yet about Cheney resigning, but the idea of putting Rice as the Republican candidate is very... well, it would certainly make it pretty hard to attack her because she's a woman and a minority. *sigh* I don't know much about her personal politics, but if she's actually pro-choice that would be pretty cool... *backs away with confusion*

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Ottawa - Canada's capital city - and my mother was a serious political animal and part of the PMO staff (Prime Minister's Office), which would loosely correspond to senior Executive Branch staff in the US. So I always see wheels within wheels when I hear of stuff like this.

This could be a rumour to test the acceptability of Rice to Republican voters, with the thought being that if she can hold the core Republican vote, plus pull women and minorities away from the Democratic vote, then she would be a viable candidate against anyone the Democrats could come up with. Would Americans who want to see a woman or a person of colour in the White House vote for someone who would continue current policies?

As far as the pro-choice issue is concerned, there's an interview in which she clarifies her position here:

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/mar/05031401.html

She says, in part, "I believe if you go back to 2000, when I helped the president in the campaign, I said that I was, in effect, kind of Libertarian on this issue, and meaning by that that I have been concerned about a government role in this issue. I'm a strong proponent of parental choice, of parental notification. I'm a strong proponent of a ban on late-term abortion. These are all things that I think unite people and I think that that's where we should be. I've called myself at times mildly pro-choice."

Since I've very strongly pro-choice, this doesn't sound very much like choice to me. She goes on to talk about how important it is to have a "culture of life" which is apparently a phrase used frequently in the evangelical Christian movement to refer to, among other things, some strongly anti-choice positions. I think she wants to have it both ways, actually, no matter what her inner personal convictions are on the topic.

Anyway, it's a far-out scenario no matter how one spins it, but it added some mild amusement to my day.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

Oh, great. Now I've got "round, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel" stuck in my head.

I like rumours. Rumours are interesting. Rumours are fun.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plot.(-:

Rep. John Conyers, probably the best liberal member of Congress we have, discusses (sort of) the rumors here: http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000277.htm

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Of course it's a plot, but to what end? That's where the fun is in deconstructing this stuff. ;-)