ABCNews recently reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [Images] is courting the vice presidential nomination.

"Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this," said Bob Senor on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos', who added that Rice has been "cosying up" to the Republican elite.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 24-29 among 1,001 adults, found that only 27 per cent view General David Petraeus favourably, compared to Rice at a staggering high level of 57 per cent.

Rice's popularity is head and shoulders higher than Barack Obama, John McCain or Hillary Clinton, the article said.

The Pew Research Poll also showed that Rice is very popular despite the Bush administration hitting record low ratings for its handling of foreign policy.

More than three-quarters of Republicans (77 per cent) and 54 per cent of independents have a positive opinion of her.

Remarkably, Democrats are evenly split in their opinion of Rice, with 43 per cent expressing favourable views and 44 per cent having an unfavourable opinion of the sitting secretary of state, the report stated.

Rice rose from humble beginnings in racially segregated Alabama to the corridors of power in Washington, DC.

The first-ever African American woman secretary of state, she is called the 'Warrior Princess' because of her poise, steely nerve and determination.

Image: US President George W Bush [Images] exchanges notes with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a working session of the NATO summit in Bucharest on April 3, 2008.

Photograph: Michael Urban/AFP/Getty Images

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