Like Ramesh, I’m a skeptic on Condi for VP. The Republicans already have a presidential candidate strongly associated with the Iraq war. Do they want a VP candidate who is even more associated with the war? The advantage McCain has is that he was critical of a failing strategy. Rice /defended/ the failing strategy. Other objections: 1) She’s pro-choice when McCain can’t afford to have the conservative base any less enthused. 2) She’s personally very impressive, but she hasn’t demonstrated any great executive skills over the last seven years, unfortunately. 3) It’s not easy being a politician. Rice has had very taxing jobs in the Bush administration, but nothing is adequate preparation for the campaign trail–except having years of experience on the campaign trail.

All that said, McCain is going to be tempted to make a splash with his VP pick. Assuming Obama wins the nomination in June, he’s probably going to have something like a 15-point lead over McCain after the Democratic convention. McCain is going to have a lot of ground to make up.