Bush's right-hand woman: with world issues at center stage, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice spends more time with the President than any other adviser-and plays a key role in the development of U.S. foreign policy

New York Times Upfront, March 22, 2004 by Elisabeth Bumiller

Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's National Security Adviser, began her relationship with George W. Bush in 2000 as the foreign-policy tutor who educated the little-traveled presidential candidate in the complexities of a world more dangerous than either of them knew.

Now, four years, two wars, and countless crises later, the relationship between the President and Rice has evolved into a partnership that has shaped one of the most assertive foreign policies in recent American history.

As Rice moves through what she insists will be her last year of service in the White House, she and other top Bush advisers have begun to talk about her work with the President, with whom she spends an extraordinary amount of time--long days at the White House, summer walks at his Texas ranch, weekends of gym workouts, football games on TV, and jigsaw puzzles with the President and First Lady at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

No other adviser spends as much time with the President as Rice. "He takes [Vice President] Cheney seriously, obviously," says a senior administration official, "but she's the last person to talk him through it."

The National Security Adviser is a key position, no matter who is in the White House. Generally, he or she (Rice is the first woman in the post) is involved in all foreign-policy matters, coordinating the work of the Defense and State departments and intelligence agencies like the CIA--and often refereeing among these powerful players when they have conflicting advice for the President.

But the job's specific responsibilities and influence depend on who has the job and his or her relationship with the President. Because of her close relationship with Bush--and the importance of foreign policy and security issues in the post 9/11 world--Rice is a critical player in many of today's most important issues.

As a presidential candidate in 2000, Bush gave a hint of his chemistry with Rice. "She's fun to be with," he said. "I like lighthearted people, not people who take themselves so seriously." Besides, he said, "She's really smart!"

Rice (whose first name was taken from the musical term con dolcezza, which means "to play with sweetness" in Italian) was born in Birmingham, Ala., where both her parents were teachers. She graduated from the University of Denver at the age of 19 and received a master's degree a year later and a doctorate in political science in 1981. She became a professor (and a Russia specialist) at Stanford University and was appointed provost when she was just 38,

REALISM AND IDEALISM

Rice, now 49, has become a germination point for Bush's foreign policy, from the war in Iraq to sidelining Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat to the policy of pre-emptive action. As an academic, she says she has melded her realism--the view that great powers act in their own self-interest--with what she calls Bush's idealism, or what his critics say is his naive belief in a "moral" American foreign policy that can spread democracy throughout the world.

Rice focuses on facts and history, while Bush starts with a set of big--picture principles rooted in his Christian faith, along with a politician's sense about other leaders and the pressures that drive them. Rice says that she sees her job as translating the President's instincts into policy, and that he influences her as much as she influences him.

"This President has a very strong anchor and compass about the direction of policy, about not just what's right and what's wrong, but what might work and what might not work," Rice says. The President likes to focus "on this issue of universal values and freedom," and after Sept. 11, she says, "I found myself seeing the value of that."

A SURROGATE DAUGHTER

To the Bushes, Rice is almost a surrogate daughter, a charming, reassuring, and--in private--sardonic presence who can explain Middle East policy in five digestible bites.

To Rice, an only child who has never married and whose parents have died, the Bushes are some of the closest friends she has. Just about the only time she spends away from her job, and the Bushes, is on Sunday afternoons, when Rice, who trained as a concert pianist, returns from Camp David and practices with a chamber music group. (She is also a passionate football fan, and says she dreams of someday being commissioner of the National Football League.)

"We are all in one way or another close to the family, but she is especially close to the family because of the time she spends with the President," says Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Rice, however, has faced increasing criticism that while she has done a good job as the President's friend and cheerleader, she has done a bad job of managing the President's frequently warring foreign-policy team. Critics say this helped lead to little planning for the occupation of Iraq, stalled negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, and no success in stopping North Korea from making nuclear weapons.

She discounts the criticism, and several senior advisers to Bush say it is in fact the President who demands the open debate. "The President has never said, 'I want only one opinion presented in the Oval Office,' " says Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House Chief of Staff. Rice, he says, "does not run around affixing muzzles to our faces."