When asked whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is on his vice President list, Arizona Senator John McCain said on Sunday that he didn’t though about it.

“I did not hear that. I missed those signals,” said Mr. McCain from his plane en route to Kansas City.

The Republican presidential nominee seized the opportunity to praise Ms. Rice describing her as a great American citizen, and a role model for millions of people. McCain finished his compliment list about Rice by saying that “her overall record is very, very meritorious.”

However, McCain also talked about Rice’s part of responsibility for the early failures in Iraq–along with President Bush, Don Rumsfeld and Colin Powell.

The speculation about Rice being a potential VP for McCain comes after former administration spokesman Dan Senor said during a Sunday interview at ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that the Secretary of State has been campaigning for a VP slot.

“Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this,” Mr. Senor said.

Given the fact that McCain will battle a female or African-American Democratic rival, it’s not sure what role gender or race will play in choosing a vice president.

It all started after McCain told the Don Imus radio show last Wednesday that he began compiling a list of possible running mates. Since then, several aides of his tried to lead McCain in regarding any VP talk, but the Arizona senator downplayed most of the running mate questions.