Condoleezza Rice Opens Door On Run For Office: 'You Never Know'

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened the door, however slightly, to a future run for political office in an interview she recently gave to Ladies Home Journal magazine.

Promoting her new book, a memoir titled "Extraordinary, Ordinary People", Rice was asked if -- since the end of the Bush administration -- she had reconsidered her past position that an elected official was not in the offing.

"I don't see myself as having that fire," she replied, according to a transcript of the interview sent to the Huffington Post. "But you never know. Like I said, it's about figuring out the next thing and seeing where it leads."

Based out in California, Rice would be fairly limited (at least in the immediate future) in terms of elected positions to pursue. The state is electing a governor and new senator this cycle, though Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cali.) is up for re-election in 2012.

That said, speculation about Rice's long-term political motivations has long been a favorite, rather wasteful parlor game for the Washington crowd. In 2008, her name was floated as Sen. John McCain's running mate. It vanished rather quickly.

The former Secretary of State's remarks to Ladies Home Journal, however, go a bit further (in the exploratory sense) than her response to similar questions in the past.

"I have always said that the one thing that I have not seen myself doing is running for elected office in the United States," Rice said, back in 2008. "I didn't even run for high-school president, Rice joked, "It's not in my genes."