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Condoleezza Rice's Image MakeoverGlenn Kessler's new book captures madam secretary putting stagecraft into her statecraft.

By Jack Shafer
Posted Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2007, at 7:24 AM ET

Click to view a slide show.When National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice became Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in January 2005, she had what Washington types call an "image problem." That is, the public regarded her as a failed counselor, one of Bush's neocon dittoheads, and—there is no other way to put it—a stone-cold heartless bitch.

The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy

Glenn Kessler's new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy, records (among other things) Rice's transformation from policy mud hen to diplomatic swan. Kessler, a Washington Post diplomatic correspondent, traveled the globe with Rice, and witnessed firsthand the rebuilding of her public personality by her handlers at State. This slide show illustrates the efforts by Rice's makeover artists to co-opt the press, and establishes why every news image the secretary generated during her tenure must be viewed through a skeptical lens.

Click here for the Condi Rice Image Makeover slide show.

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Jack Shafer is Slate's editor at large.
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Remarks from the Fray:

I have no interest in defending someone from the Bush Administration, but surely this is not the first Sec of State that has consciously worked to manage their image. Every politician or diplomat of similar stature visits places like the Taj in India in an attempt to have the aesthetics of those monuments rub off on them. Similarly, they all care about how they look as they visit with other foreign diplomats or leaders (both their clothes and their surroundings.)

Ms. Rice's gender and race provide a counterpoint to the usual "old white guy" that many US and western countries have in their diplomatic corps, so it doesn't surprise me that she and her handlers are making use of it. I guess I'm just wondering why this article thinks that is something new or evil.

Image does mean something and it makes sense to point them out so people can make sure they separate those nice images from the realities of policies or personalities that may not match the image. But this isn't something new or only practiced by one side as implied here....

--DinAK

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