Dan Senor, a Republican strategist, mentioned today on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might actually be seeking to become McCain’s running mate for the upcoming election in the role of VP. Would this be a winning ticket for Republicans?

Personally, I would love to see a McCain/Rice ticket. It makes sense to me on multiple levels.

First, while Senator McCain is one of the most honorable men in Washington, DC, Secretary Rice is certainly one of the smartest. Secretary Rice has served in two different administrations, she speaks several languages, she was the Provost of Stanford University for several years, and in her youth she became a proficient pianist.

Secretary Rice served in the administration of George HW Bush from 1989 to 1991, and became first a Director, then a Senior Director of Soviet Affairs. Her knowledge of the Soviet Union was so highly regarded that President Bush once introduced her to Mikhail Gorbachev as “the one who tells me everything I know about the Soviet Union.” Secretary Rice then served as Stanford Provost from 1993 to 1999. During her time at Stanford, Secretary Rice was able to turn a $20 million dollar deficit carried by the school into a $14.5 million surplus in just two years, something which no one had originally believed could be accomplished.

Without going in to every detail of her life, I do think it becomes obvious in a short span of time that Secretary Rice is one of the most impressive people of this generation. Secretary Rice is a scholar, a musician, a statesman, and a leader. She has excelled in nearly everything she has tried, and knows first-hand exactly how horrible racism can be.

Secretary Rice is easily more impressive than either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton. And she is a person who, in Washington, is both highly regarded and highly respected. Even those who don’t like her respect her, albeit grudgingly.

She would be a phenomenal choice for Vice President, a good balance in every way for Senator McCain. Secretary Rice is young, brilliant, as energetic as the Senator, and has an impressive reputation both nationally and internationally. And if something were ever to happen to Senator McCain — God forbid — Americans would know that McCain picked a woman who is easily capable of being president, while, at the same time, Republicans could be confident in her conservative values.

Let’s hope Senator McCain sees it the same way.

NOTE: I highly recommend that readers take the time to read more about Secretary Rice. You can find a great deal of information about her at Wikipedia.org. The more you learn about Secretary Rice, the more you will be impressed.

Randi Rhodes, the foul-mouthed, mean-spirited talk show host on the liberal Air America network was suspended Thursday for calling Senator Clinton a “whore,” using the F word as part of her description. You can see her performance on YouTube here.

So why is this such a scandal? After all, it was part of a comedy routine and Ms. Rhodes has been given a great deal of leniency when in comedic mode. For example, there was that comment a couple years back, when, during her radio show, Randi was comparing the Bush family to the Corleones from “The Godfather.”

Randi told the caller that, “the Fredo of the family is the president of the United States, so why doesn’t his father or his brother … take him out for a little fishing, and let him say some Hail Marys – he loves God so much. … You know, Hail Mary, full of grace, God is with thee – pow [gunshot sound] – works for me.”

Ms. Rhodes got into a bit of trouble for that statement when the secret service looked into the threat. Randi’s response was to apologize. She told listeners, “I feel bad that anybody would feel threatened by comedy. That’s one thing, but I also feel bad that it wasn’t funny.” Of course, a lot of liberal “comedy” is unfunny, so no big surprise there.

But what do you think is worse, threatening the President of the United States or calling someone a “f@!?ing Whore”? I would think wishing harm on the President as being far worse, yet Rhodes was not even suspended for that remark.

I guess it’s okay to wish death on someone as long as they are Republican, but dare to call a Democrat an inappropriate name and you are toast! An unfortunate but unsurprising double-standard.

I have to apologize and give credit where it’s due in regards to my last post. An article posted to Weeklystandard.com entitled Plagiarism went up late last week and while I had already been thinking along the same lines, the article really inspired me to blog more on this topic. So, if you want to read a very well-written article discussing “style vs. substance” differences in this upcoming presidential campaign, you’ll find it here.

While most people think that Senator Obama will be the Democratic presidential nominee this year, Republicans already have their nominee, Senator John McCain. The fact is, I couldn’t be more delighted with McCain as our nominee. I began gravitating towards Senator McCain about six months ago, and I think this cycle Republicans made a wise choice.

Democrats have a big problem. Actually, they have several big problems, including the fact that they are tearing themselves apart in a long, drawn-out primary battle between Senators Obama and Clinton.

But their biggest problem is that, whoever becomes the Democratic nominee must face one of the most substantive opponents they’ve faced since Ronald Reagan ran in 1980. In some ways, McCain is even more substantive as a candidate.

Senator Clinton, of course, has her imagined experience while a First Lady plus seven years in Congress. And I take nothing away from Senator Clinton’s years in Congress; she’s shown herself to be both effective and influential in the Senate.

Senator Obama of course has three years in the Senate and about 8 years as an Illinois state senator. Again, not bad. Certainly, Senator Obama has been a rising star in the Democratic Party since he first began running for office a few years back. Senator Obama is nothing less than impressive for his political skills.

But there is a gap for both Democratic senators. I guess you could sum it up by asking, “where’s the beef?”

It is, as I have said, style vs. substance. So, how will the eventual Democratic candidate deal with such as substantive presidential rival? By attacking his substance of course.

And we’ve already seen some initial salvo’s with Clinton and Obama supporters promising an ominous and serious look at McCain’s “record.” Which means they are going to dig in and find whatever they can to smear him with.

The whole trumped-up charge of plagiarism against McCain by liberal website ThinkProgress.org is the perfect example of how Democrats are hoping to smear him, yet, if this kind of thing is the best they can do, they are in serious trouble come November. Of course, ThinkProgress.org was forced to apologize for their mistake, but even if they had not, why would it have been, as some liberals put it, “devastating” to McCain’s campaign that he echoed a fellow warrior in declaring his hatred for war?

All I can say is, there’s a truck coming down the road, it’s called the “McCain Campaign,” and, come November, I don’t think Democrats are going to know what hit them.

But that’s just my opinion.

I’m going to blog more on this later.  This is a key factor in the upcoming general campaign between Senator McCain and whomever Democrats decide will take him on this year.  As I watch Senator Obama in particular as he carefully dances around the issues, trying to be all things to all people, and compare that to Senator McCain’s style of “straight talk,” I feel increasingly confident that McCain will win in November.

More to come!