Where is Condoleezza Rice?

When politicians began throwing their names into the race for the 2008 Presidential election, many people began to speculate about then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Websites such as Rice2008.com began to pop up all over the internet, encouraging Secretary Rice to run. When it became obvious she wasn't going to, many Republicans hoped to persuade Senator John McCain to pick her as his running mate. But Rice made it pretty clear that she was not interested in running for any political office,

"I don't know how many ways to say no. I don't have any desire to run for president. I don't intend to. I won't do it...I know what it takes to run for president. I've watched it up close, one of these days very soon I am going to want to return to being an academic again and to get back to the California life, and the world of ideas."

It's been a few months since the Bush administration left office and many people have been left wondering what Secretary Rice is doing now, especially after she recently made headlines for writing a piece about the Masters entitled, "My Weekend on Tiger's Trail." Throughout her public life, Rice has been known for her love of sports and has even joked about wanting to become the next NFL commissioner. Turns out, she's also a fan of Tiger Woods. In the piece, she jokes,

"...when I was able to get tickets for my first Masters, I was really excited. I’ve been to Super Bowls, the Final Four, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships—nothing matched the anticipation of my first Masters. As the time approached, my assistant Anne said, 'They want to know who you want to follow.' Borrowing language from Anne’s generation, I said, 'Duh?' I know Tiger from our Stanford connection. I once sat with him at a Stanford-Duke basketball game. Stanford won on a buzzer-beater, and we stormed the court together. With that kind of bonding, whom else would I pull for?"

So, aside from blogging about her trip to Augusta, what else has Rice been up to? Well, just last week, she joined former President George W. Bush in a visit to Southern Methodist University for a meeting to discuss the George Bush institute. Afterwards she took pictures with students and faculty and then, along with several other former Bush aides and advisers, the Secretary had dinner at the former President's home.

A quick Google news search will tell you that the former Secretary of State has been invited to speak at many upcoming events and occasions. On April 30, she will speak at the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan, she'll return to Washington D.C. to speak at the Annual Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Lecture, and even as far ahead as January, 2010, Rice has been lined up to speak at the Marin Speaker Series.

But true to her word, Secretary Rice returned to academia in March. She is currently a political science professor at Stanford University. At Standford she also serves as a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution. Even so, people continue to speculate a future run for President and even Governor of California. For now, it looks like she's pretty content at Stanford, but who knows what the future will hold for Condoleezza Rice.