Rice: I Don't Want to Run for President

This is also from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - For Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, no means no — and no again — when it comes to whether she will run for president.

"It's not what I want to do with my life, it's not what I'm going to do with my life," Rice said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

A group pushing for a Rice candidacy has run a television ad in New Hampshire — traditional site of the first presidential primary — and plans to air it soon in Iowa, where the first party caucuses take place.

At least two Web sites are promoting Rice even though Rice herself has said for months that she is not interested in running.

Asked on NBC and on "Fox News Sunday" whether she would run for president in 2008, Rice said she is flattered but would decline.

"I'm not somebody who wants to run for office. I haven't ever run for anything," Rice told NBC. "I think I'm doing what I need to do, which is to try and promote American foreign policy, American interests, the president's democracy agenda at an extraordinary time."

Pressed by host Tim Russert, Rice said, "I don't know how may ways to say no."

"So," asked Russert, "no ...?"

A few seconds of silence followed. "Tim," Rice said, "I don't know how many ways to tell people that I have no interest in being a candidate for anything. ... No."

I don't blame Rice for saying no tpresidentialntal run--even though there are quite a few on the Republican side who are goading her into running. If Rice were to run and win the White House in 2008, she would end up getting stuck with the mess in Iraq that she was responsible for creating in the first place. And that's even if she could win, considering that a Rice campaign would be consistently badgered with questions regarding the Iraq war, Valerie Plamegate, and the Bush administrations lying regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The second problem that Rice has is that her knowledge and expertise is in foreign policy, Soviet relations, and now Iraq. She has no experience regarding the economy, relations with Congress, the budget deficit, health care, unemployment, or a number of domestic issues the a president must address. And with interest rates rising, the defict ballooning, domestic issues may take center stage in 2008. For Rice to learn of these issues, she would need the expertise of conservative economists and business leaders. And it would be difficult enough for her to study up on domestic issues if Iraq gets even worst.

So after eight years in the Bush administration--both as National Security Advisor and as Secretary of State, it wouldn't surprise me if Rice goes back to Stanford and academia.