US: US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice yesterday disappointed legions of political junkies who had been salivating at the prospect of an all-woman race for the White House in 2008 between her and Senator Hillary Clinton, insisting she would not seek the presidency.
"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," she told ABC television yesterday.
Dr Rice, perhaps inadvertently, helped fan speculation about an all-woman contest when she declined to categorically rule out a run for the presidency in an interview with the Washington Times newspaper on Saturday.
But by her second appearance on television chat shows yesterday, it was clear that Dr Rice did not relish throwing herself into the endurance test that is a presidential race.
"I know what it takes to run for president. I've watched it up close," she told CBS television. Although she enjoyed her job in the Bush administration, "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".
The more definitive denial yesterday douses several weeks of speculation in Washington and on the internet that Dr Rice would use her new, more high-profile post as a stepping stone to the presidency.
With no obvious Republican contender in sight - Vice-President Dick Cheney and Jeb Bush, brother of the president and governor of Florida, have taken themselves out of the running - a number of Republicans had floated the idea of Dr Rice as a candidate. That in turn raised the prospect of a contest with Ms Clinton, a scenario that, despite the unconscionably early timing, had been making the rounds in Washington.
Although Ms Clinton has repeatedly said her ambitions are focused on her campaign for re-election to the Senate, she is widely believed to be positioning herself for a presidential run.