Thaindian News

Washington, Aug 19 (IANS) South Carolina’s Indian-American Governor Nikki Haley has dismissed any suggestion that she should serve as the Republican vice presidential nominee in the 2012 election.

Born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to Sikh immigrant parents, America’s youngest governor told CNN in an interview Thursday that if asked to serve in the No.2 spot, she would not accept.

“I’ve been in this job eight months. If we’re going to look at a vice president, let’s look at somebody who can bring a lot of experience to the table,” Haley said. “Let’s look at somebody that can do more.”

Haley, 39, who was elected in 2008 with support of the Tea Party movement and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, said she is focused on her job as governor but is hopeful about the current Republican presidential field.

“We are now seeing that this country is in pretty bad shape and what I do see is we’ve got great candidates that are going to lift us out of this, and I think we’ll have great candidates for vice president as well,” Haley said. “But I’m not going to be one of them.”

As governor of the first-in-the-South primary state, Haley has entertained the White House hopefuls, all hoping for her support. But she said it is too soon in the process to issue an endorsement.

“This is the time we really need to be doing a lot of listening to what their details are, what their specifics are and waiting to weigh in until we can really see what the full platform looks like,” Haley was quoted as saying.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)