Opinion

Rice as Romney’s Veep: Weighing the pro & con(di)

The Issue: Whether Mitt Romney should tap former Secretary of State Rice as his VP running mate.

***

Mitt Romney will be picking a vice presidential running mate soon, and I hope, as Peggy Noonan suggests in her column, he picks Condoleezza Rice (“Condi for Veep!” PostScript, July 15).

Here is a woman of color who comes with a tremendous amount of experience in foreign policy. She truly knows the players and the games they play.

Rice comes with prestige, integrity and credibility. Now that’s a vice presidential option Romney should not pass up.

Frederick Bedell Jr.

Glen Oaks Village

***

Noonan is lacking passion in her political life. She took two pages to lead up to her assertion that Rice should be Romney’s running mate.

As a leading architect and supporter of the Iraq War (the country’s worst foreign-policy decision of all time), it would remind voters just how horrendous eight years of Bush were.

In addition, Rice is pro-choice, a reasonable position that would turn off much of Romney’s base.

If the selection is designed to attract blacks and women, rest assured that she is unpopular with both of those groups. As in the previous elections, when the unvetted, ill-equipped Sarah Palin was chosen to appeal to the women’s vote, women will again balk at the cynical, transparent move, to say nothing of black voters’ perceptions, as well.

Rich Bloom

Cos Cob, Conn.

***

Romney would be making an excellent choice in choosing Rice as his running mate.

Coming from Stanford, she’s well-educated and did an admirable job as secretary of state under George W. Bush.

Our current vice president, Joe Biden, has been invisible, spending a great deal of time in his home state of Delaware. A qualified female candidate like Rice could sway voters come November.

Matt Engel

Wilkes-Barre, Pa.