MAYBE SHE IS RUNNING:

Dance of Diplomacy Is Grist for the Gossip Mill (HELENE COOPER, 9/13/06, NY Times)

[I]t took a two-hour flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, this week, followed by a 90-minute motorcade north up Highway 102 to Pictou County, for Ms. Rice to find herself linked to someone with similar star appeal: Peter MacKay of Canada, the single, sophisticated foreign minister, routinely named Canada’s sexiest M.P. by The Hill Times in Ottawa, and the closest thing to eye candy on the diplomatic circuit. Tall, athletic, young, blond and recently dumped by his girlfriend, a fellow member of Parliament, Belinda Stronach, who parted with him when she switched parties, Mr. MacKay does not look like your usual foreign minister.

He has a tan and the build of someone who spends his time on the rugby field, not holed up reading G-8 communiqués. Sure, at 40 years old, he is younger than Ms. Rice, who is 51, but that did not stop gossips from engaging in baseless speculating.

Even the protesters who routinely show up wherever Ms. Rice goes got in on the act. “Pete, Condi, Make Love Not War,” read one sign, carried by a grinning demonstrator who had roused himself to take a position early Tuesday morning in front of the Museum of Industry here, where the two spoke to local leaders and the press.

Marriage is a key stepping-stone if Ms Rice is to president some day.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 13, 2006 7:11 AM