Poll says Rice should be Romney's VP

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CNN Poll: Republicans divided on VP choice
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CNN Political Unit

Washington (CNN) - Who should Mitt Romney choose as his running mate?

According to a new national poll, there's no consensus among Republicans. But a CNN/ORC International survey released Wednesday does indicate there's an ideological split that could put pressure on Romney, the all but certain GOP presidential nominee, as he tries to make his decision.

Full results (PDF)

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The poll asked Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP to choose from eight names who could be among the two dozen or so potential running mates that the Romney campaign may be considering as the vice presidential nominee.

According to the survey, Condoleezza Rice is on top of the list. Twenty-six percent questioned said they would like to see Rice, who served as national security adviser and later as secretary of state under President George W. Bush, as the Republican vice presidential nominee. In second place in the survey, at 21%, was Rick Santorum, who was Romney's chief rival for the nomination until early last week, when the former senator from Pennsylvania suspended his campaign for the White House.

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were each at 14%, with House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin at 8%, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at 5%, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell at 1% and Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio at less than one half of one percent.

"Name recognition is the key," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Rice and Santorum are best known and they top the overall wish list."

But split out self-described supporters of the tea party movement and a different picture emerges.

The poll indicates that Rubio, at 22%, and Christie, at 18%, top the list of tea party supporters, with Rice and Santorum dropping into a tie for third place.

According to the survey, among Republicans who say they aren't supporters of the tea party, 36% say Rice is their choice to be Romney's running mate, with one in four saying they'd like Santorum as the GOP vice presidential nominee. Christie barely cracks double digits and Rubio is in single digits among non tea party supporters.

Why don't Rubio and Christie do better among non tea party supporters?

"Once again, it's all a matter of name recognition," says Holland. "Two-thirds of tea party Republicans are familiar with Rubio and virtually all of them have a favorable view of him; six in ten Republicans who do not support the tea party have little or no idea who Rubio is. Christie's numbers among tea party supporters are even higher - three-quarters of them have a favorable view of the New Jersey governor and only one in five are unfamiliar with him; nearly six in ten Republicans who don't support the tea party don't have an opinion of Christie."

The poll indicates that the other names on the list, such as Jindal, McDonnell, and Portman, are unknown quantities to tea party supporters and other Republicans alike. It goes without saying, however, that the presidential nominee is unlikely to put his running-mate choice to a vote, so Romney's opinion is probably the only one that will count in the end.

The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International from April 13-15, with 473 Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

But she only has a majority of 26%, compared to Santorum's 21%.

EDIT: Fixed quote tags.

[Mr Bean]

Not having a firm grasp on Rice's policy positions I can't say it would be a good thing or a bad thing. Santorum would be a big mistake, as would Newt, Trump, Bachmann, Cain, Perry and sad to say Paul (One of them would claim the others head before election day because of the military issues between the two)

Smart money is on Marco Rubio with Bobby Jindal as a dark horse. No way Chris Christie leaves his state to go campaign and retains his governorship as NJ is not Alaska and there's way to much day to day work as Governor to simply go off campaigning. But Condoleezza Rice is again and interesting pick except I don't know any of her real policy speeches and I worry she might end up publicly disagreeing with him on some very important issues and she's come off as semi-liberal in some social issues where Romney is weakest.

[Flagg]

According to The Last Word tonight Rice is pro-choice and for civil unions for gays, so I doubt she'll get picked. I've also hear rumors that she's a closeted lesbian which is an automatic disqualifyer for Democrats let alone Republicans.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Rice would actually be Ideal.
She is both Black and a Woman, so Mittins can use her to shmooze moderates.
She is "relatively" moderate for a Republican.
And from her time in the Dubya years, she doesn't have a history of saying Stupid things.

Which is why I think she will NOT get the VP Nod.

My belief is Mittins will follow the same doomed path that McCain ended up with, of being obsessed with "shoring up the base" and will then pick a far Right VP like Santorum or Bachmann.

My two cents.

[Mr Bean]

According to The Last Word tonight Rice is pro-choice and for civil unions for gays, so I doubt she'll get picked. I've also hear rumors that she's a closeted lesbian which is an automatic disqualifyer for Democrats let alone Republicans.

Any non-married woman is a closet lesbian in Republican eyes be they conservative or liberal. More importantly there are several very rich Conservatives who are pro-gay marriage due to having a gay son or daughter or one with a gay brother so it's not like a Republican can't run for President and be pro-gay marriage. He can't win the nomination but he can win the Presidency because for every vote he loses on gay marriage he can collect two back for being anti-abortion.

[Simon_Jester]

Married women are closet lesbians too; look at what gets thrown at Hillary Clinton.

And Bean, how many of those pro-gay Republicans are actually running for major public office?

[Mr Bean]

Married women are closet lesbians too; look at what gets thrown at Hillary Clinton.

And Bean, how many of those pro-gay Republicans are actually running for major public office?

In state spots? About two dozen nation wide. For Federal office? Zero because again the Primary weeds them out for now still.

[Dalton]

From what I've heard, the choice will likely be Hispanic and/or female to help bolster two weak demos for Mittens.

[Zinegata]

My belief is Mittins will follow the same doomed path that McCain ended up with, of being obsessed with "shoring up the base" and will then pick a far Right VP like Santorum or Bachmann.

My two cents.

Yep, agree here.

BTW, a question, was Cheney pro-gay because of his daughter?

[Mr Bean]

Yep, agree here.

BTW, a question, was Cheney pro-gay because of his daughter?

Cheney is one of the ones I listed since he's back to being a Rich private citizen. From all accounts he loves her very much and does support civil unions pretty strongly and stayed mostly silent on the issue as VP. Now that he's out he's back to speaking up again in favor of it.

[Zinegata]

Yep, agree here.

BTW, a question, was Cheney pro-gay because of his daughter?

Cheney is one of the ones I listed since he's back to being a Rich private citizen. From all accounts he loves her very much and does support civil unions pretty strongly and stayed mostly silent on the issue as VP. Now that he's out he's back to speaking up again in favor of it.

Thanks, I was wondering how his stance is now.

[General Mung Beans]

Smart money is on Marco Rubio with Bobby Jindal as a dark horse.

Marco Rubio is a really good choice in that he's popular the Tea Party without alienating moderates. However on the other hand some people (such as on Free Republic) argue he can't be VP or President since he isn't a "natural born citizen" in that his parents were citizens when he was born.

[Skgoa]

Um, does Rubio-Blunt amendment ring any bells? Condi would actually be a great choice both for electoral reasons and for the office.

[Mr Bean]

Interesting note talking about VP speculation once again Rubio has come out and much more clearly said if Romney asked me I'd say no which is rare as almost no one says no to a VP request.

[Flagg]

Um, does Rubio-Blunt amendment ring any bells? Condi would actually be a great choice both for electoral reasons and for the office.

Except that there's no evidence a VP pick has ever significantly helped a Presidential candidate.

[Flagg]

Interesting note talking about VP speculation once again Rubio has come out and much more clearly said if Romney asked me I'd say no which is rare as almost no one says no to a VP request.

Rubio would be a disaster anyway. He lied about his parents fleeing from Castro and he was baptized as a Mormon when he was 8.

[Captain Seafort]

Except that there's no evidence a VP pick has ever significantly helped a Presidential candidate.

I wouldn't say that - McCain's VP pick pretty much decided the election.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Except that there's no evidence a VP pick has ever significantly helped a Presidential candidate.

I wouldn't say that - McCain's VP pick pretty much decided the election.

This..

These days It is pretty much the case that a VP can only HURT A presidential race.
I cannot think of a single race in the past 30 years where the VP actually inspired voters that otherwise would not have voted for the primary candidate.

"Successful" VP's in recent years have pretty much been ones that keep their head down and don't say anything Stupid. To that extent Biden (for the most part) has been a good VP. During the 2008 election he pretty much stayed out of the headlines as much as possible. B y way of contrast, we all know what happened with Palin.

[Dalton]

Biden is a well-known gaffe machine and has said some pretty wild stuff, but nothing like Palin or Dan Quayle; however, he's an experienced elder statesman with loads of foreign relations experience. He's been kept busy quite a bit so isn't in the media as much as the far more charismatic Obama. Similarly, you have people like former SecDef Dick Cheney who was pretty much off the radar (in a secure undisclosed location). Then you have Al Gore and George H.W. Bush, who were well-known enough to go into presidential runs in their own right. And of course John Edwards, who became the very definition of "do not touch, even with a 59 1/2 foot pole".

Regarding Marco Rubio, he recently had a slip-up during an interview with Major Garrett that hinted towards the Veepstakes selection. He's definitely a contender.

[Skgoa]

Except that there's no evidence a VP pick has ever significantly helped a Presidential candidate.

I wouldn't say that - McCain's VP pick pretty much decided the election.

This..

These days It is pretty much the case that a VP can only HURT A presidential race.
I cannot think of a single race in the past 30 years where the VP actually inspired voters that otherwise would not have voted for the primary candidate.

"Successful" VP's in recent years have pretty much been ones that keep their head down and don't say anything Stupid. To that extent Biden (for the most part) has been a good VP. During the 2008 election he pretty much stayed out of the headlines as much as possible. B y way of contrast, we all know what happened with Palin.

I.e. Condi is still the ideal pick.

[TimothyC]

It's the lower half of the ticket I wanted so I'll take what I can get.

I do find it heartening to know that I am not alone.

[Gandalf]

It's the lower half of the ticket I wanted so I'll take what I can get.

Eh?

[TimothyC]

It's the lower half of the ticket I wanted so I'll take what I can get.

Eh?

Going into the primary season this year, my preferred 'republican team' was Huntsman-Rice. I think I had it in my signature for a while.

[thejester]

Why? Not that I've followed it that closely but there seems to be a big gap between Rice's image and her performance under Bush. Wasn't there a lot of criticism about her time at Secretary of State within the Administration?

[Rabid]

Why? Not that I've followed it that closely but there seems to be a big gap between Rice's image and her performance under Bush. Wasn't there a lot of criticism about her time at Secretary of State within the Administration?

Disclaimer : I know nothing about American politics.
But... wouldn't criticism against her from this time-period tend to stem more from the fact that she was following Bush's policies than from mistakes of her own ?