Condoleezza Rice Top Romney VP Choice For Voters; Surest Sign She Won't Be His Pick?

A new Fox News poll shows 30% of voters preferring Condoleezza Rice to be Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick. That number is the same whether looking at all voters or just Republicans. Behind her in the poll was Marco Rubio, the choice of 19 percent of Republicans and 12 percent of voters overall. Chris Christie rounds out the top three with 8 percent of support. A hypothetical Obama/Biden-Romney/Rice match up is tied at 46 percent. The poll has President Obama's approval rating at 47 percent, with 50 percent of voters saying he deserves to be re-elected.

But could that level of support for Condoleezza Rice by voters sink her chances to be Romney's pick?  As Peter Suderman noted when suggesting Mitt Romney could be his own running mate, the candidate doesn't appear to like to share the limelight with staffers. Matthew Feeney pointed out earlier today that Condoleezza Rice doesn't appear on the most recently reported veep list, and even the inclusion of Marco Rubio could just be a diversionary tactic, excluding the choice of almost half of Republicans in this latest Fox News poll. But when Mitt Romney was the first choice of only at most a third of Republicans in the first place, maybe he assumes Republicans will just come around to whoever he chooses as his running as well anyway?