Condi! Condi! Condi!

John Tabin's trying to make me peel off my Condi '08 bumper sticker:

There's little evidence that blacks are much more likely to vote for black Republicans as they are for white Republicans, and the mention of Hispanics is, unless I'm missing something, a non sequitur. Maybe single white women would be more open to a candidate like Rice, but that's hardly a slam dunk. In a Rasmussen poll earlier this month, Sen. Clinton led Dr. Rice 55% to 32% among those who are not married. Overall, Rasmussen showed Clinton leading Rice 47% to 40%.

This isn't the first time Republicans have gotten starry-eyed about an idealized black candidate; there was buzz about a potential Colin Powell candidacy in the fall of 1995. Hilariously, William Kristol was a booster a Powell, years before Powell became undoubtedly Kristol's least favorite cabinet member. (Others at the Weekly Standard were less enthused.) By that time, it was clear that the GOP field was weak enough to make the lackluster Bob Dole the frontrunner. While the field for 2008 isn't looking all that exciting at this point, there is plenty of time for a formidable candidate to emerge. The slightly desperate courting of Rice seems awfully premature.

African-Americans are a 90%+ lock for the Democrats when they field a decent candidate. One should presume Hillary would be a decent candidate. Yet given a choice between having a white liberal woman as President or the first African-American President, you've gotta think Condi could peel off some of that 90%.

Americans love great stories, and President Rice is a lot better story than another President Clinton.

This isn't desperation---there is a genuine fondness for Condi Rice among Republicans. It's a fondness Colin Powell completely squandered by becoming a petty political bureaucrat instead of the statesman we'd all hoped he'd be.

In handicapping the '08 GOP field, I much prefer even an untried Condi to a tried-and-false John McCain.