Ron Paul says supporters 'wouldn't be very happy' with Rice as VP

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Friday that if Mitt Romney chose Condoleezza Rice as his vice president, it would not likely help him to attract former supporters of the Texas congressman's presidential campaign.

Paul, who attracted a passionate base of supporters during the Republican presidential primary, predicted his fans would be disappointed by the former secretary of state's foreign policy.

"I don’t dictate anything to anybody, but they wouldn’t be very happy with her," Paul told Fox Business Network. "She represents a foreign policy quite different than what energizes college campuses today.”

And Paul said he personally was "surprised" when the Drudge Report reported Thursday that Rice was a frontrunner.

“I was really surprised. I would be pretty amazed if she were to be picked," Paul said. "I can understand philosophically why she might because even though she talked along with Bush in the year 2000 about a humble foreign policy and no nation building, it didn’t turn out that way, so she would fit the bill for him, but it wouldn’t help the Ron Paul supporters because they would like a different foreign policy.”

Paul's brand of foreign policy, which prescribes a more isolationist approach, is one of his major divergences from Republican party orthodoxy. The Texas lawmaker was criticized frequently for his stance on the issue during the Republican debates.

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