Rice Slams Door On W. House Run

(CBS/AP)  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday ruled out running for president, responding to speculation fueled by a recent poll showing support for a Rice candidacy.

Rice told The Washington Times last week, "I have never wanted to run for anything," although she seemed to leave the door open to the possibility.

She closed the door in appearances on Sunday talk shows, telling CBS News' Face the Nation, "I've never wanted to run for anything. I don' think I ran for class president at any time."

On NBC's "Meet the Press," she said, "I will not run for president of the United States."

And even more definitively, she told ABC's "This Week." "I won't. How's that? Is that categorical enough?"

In a poll conducted in February, 42 percent of voters said Rice should run for the White House.

The survey, conducted by the Siena College Research Institute and sponsored by Hearst Newspapers, found that 81 percent of people would vote for a woman for president; 53 percent thought Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., should try for the job.

"I want to do what I'm doing," Rice said on "Face the Nation."

"I love being secretary of state thus far. I liked being national security adviser. And one of these days very soon I'm going to want to return and be an academic again and get back to the California life and to the world of ideas," said the former Stanford University provost.