This is quite interesting: Grover Norquist – the man who has declared a war on taxes – endorses current US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for Vice President. He also said that he doesn’t know whether she’s actively lobbying to come John McCain’s running mate but, he added, “if she is, she’s doing it the right way.”

He was tremendously impressed by Rice two weeks ago, when she seemingly tried to convince “a rapt audience” that she would be a great VP.

It was Rice’s first appearance ever before the influential huddle of Washington conservatives, thus it was the first time many right-leaning thinkers around town had had a chance to hear from her firsthand; usually, she sends a deputy from the State Department to talk to the gathering, as other Cabinet secretaries do.

But this time, Rice wanted to address the group of activists and writers personally. And Norquist, who hosts the meetings, says many attendees “left the room saying, ‘This is a woman who could be president.’” [...]

Norquist, whose latest conservative tome is titled “Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives”, says Rice is “very, very good on the Second Amendment.” And guns, he points out, right up there with tax cuts, is a “key issue” with the intellectual conservative set that frequents his Wednesday meetings.

And even though Rice is known for her foreign policy acumen, not her economic policies, Norquist says he’s comfortable with her because, heck, “she’s from Stanford and hangs out with all those [economics] guys.”

The problem is that if McCain picks Rice as his running mate, he aligns himself with one of the least popular administrations in decades. The advantage of picking Rice, however, is that she’s knowledgeable, experienced, and – of course – a woman of color. She may not be able to convince many African-Americans to vote Republican if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee – and he’ll be just that – but it would most certainly counter the charge that (many / most) Republicans are sexists and racists.

Far more importantly though, I think that Rice is a good politician, and that she would make a good VP. The VP doesn’t have to be the strongest of characters. The US doesn’t, in my opinion, need another Dick Cheney. It needs someone who is more than willing to play second violin. And Rice, I think, will be satisfied with being a more traditional VP (compared to Cheney, who basically considers the VP to be the second president, albeit one who doesn’t have to tell the people what he’s doing).

I may disagree about Rice with quite some American conservatives, and I think that this is because she’s not conservative enough, or not neoconservative enough perhaps, to satisfy the American far-right. But that’s yet another reason that I like her. She’s far more moderate and pragmatical than, say, a Donald Rumsfeld, a Dick Cheney, or George W. Bush. She’s more of a problem solver, and someone who’s able to understand nuances.

Politically it may not be overly wise to pick Rice as running mate (Bush administration), but I would certainly understand it if McCain goes ahead and picks her as his VP anyway.