My first reaction is "Awww..."

My second reaction is, "She's not planning on it NOW."

I can dream can't I?

I was totally bummed. Condi is my idol.

I do not believe Secretary Rice could win the nomination much less the election. So my first reaction was a sigh of relief. But after reading the transcript (the only way I would ever have anything to do with that creep Russert), I see she was parsing her words. Asking that question nearly four years out from the election is stupid and you should not believe what anybody says in response - yes or no. I like Condi a lot. She's brilliant, loyal, patriotic and a strong, strong person. But I do not think she can muster enough government experience (although State comes close) to convince Republicans to hand her the nomination. If I am wrong and she does run and does get the nomination, I will be there for her working as hard as I can to get her elected. I like her that much.

While I disagree with Scaramonga about Condi's experience, I think he read today's announcement correctly. Today's "no" stops short of a full Sherman, and at this point it would be counterproductive for Condi to say anything else, regardless of her inclinations. Frist, for example, seems to be trying to divide his time between pursuing the nomination and performing his duties as Majority Leader, and IMHO he's weakened himself in both roles.

Right now Condi needs to focus on her duties as SecState. If she handles those responsibilities as well as I expect, then in 2007 the calls for her to run are going to even stronger, and her answer might be quite different.

utron,

That's the way to play it; she might just be putting it to bed, for now.

At any rate, there's a whole bunch of living to get through before 2008....the Donk's are concentrating heavily on it because they know they've got no chance in the 2006 midterms, but we've got things to do...like win the war, etc.

/Agreed

Though I'm also with Scara in the fact that I'd rather see get seasoned a bit more, say as VP?