By J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Posted on 02/18/2003 6:04:20 AM PST by GailA
By J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Through hard work, outstanding intelligence and good connections, Condoleezza Rice has become virtually indispensable to the Bush administration as national security adviser.
The author of Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story is impressed with the national security adviser to President Bush.
The Rice stuff Condi author tells all about security adviser - and it's all good
By Jon W. Sparks sparks@gomemphis.com February 18, 2003
Condoleezza Rice is the most powerful black woman in the world today.
Care to argue with that?
Take it up with biographer Antonia Felix, the go-to source for all things Condi.
The author of Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story is plainly impressed with the national security adviser to President Bush.
"She cannot be intimidated," Felix says without fear of contradiction. "She holds her own among major figures. That relationship with Bush has made her his closest adviser in the White House."
Rice's daunting resume tells why. She was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1954, studied piano, loved to ice skate and shared a passion for football with her father. She graduated cum laude from the University of Denver, was drawn to international affairs, got a PhD and became a poli-sci prof at Stanford.
She started out fast; now it gets faster.
Condi publishes, she gets promoted, she gets noticed. A stint with the George H. W. Bush administration is a boost, and she joins corporate boards, addresses the Republican National Convention and is appointed provost at Stanford. Already pals in politics and football with the younger Bush, her smarts and straight-shooting style keep her at his side during the campaign and secure the national security adviser job after election.
It's so very stratospheric, but, as Felix notes, it all started with a fundamental thing.
"Her family, her parents - what incredible people they were. They were such loving, supporting, stimulating and amazing people. They put all of that into Condi so she would have every opportunity to be what she wanted to be. Starting in one of the most segregated cities in America in the 1960s, they turned it around. They made her believe she was invincible."
Not every goal was reached. Rice wanted to be a concert pianist - she took to the keyboard at age 3 - but destiny put that career aside. Felix says it remains a passion, however: "Her music is still a big part of her life. She's a great pianist and she doesn't take it lightly. She plays like a pro."
If it takes one to know one, then Felix was a natural choice to do the Rice bio. Both have busy and diverse passions.
Felix has a degree in psychology, worked as an ad copywriter, has done graduate work in music, has written 13 nonfiction books, edited others and presently, in between author appearances, is working on her master's degree in English.
There's more. She also finds time to perform in the United States and Europe as an operatic soprano.
"It sounds like a lot, but it's spread over 45 years," Felix says modestly.
An unauthorized biography of Harry Connick Jr. got Felix noticed by other publishers, and more book deals started cooking.
Between Harry and Condi, she did a biography of first lady Laura Bush.
"My agent had the idea after the election. Nobody really knew anything about her, and he thought publishers would be interested."
Felix wrote a proposal, but the idea went pfffft in New York publishing circles. Not enough scandalous material to feed the beast.
"Then we were having lunch with an editor at Adams Media, a publisher in Boston, and she said 'That sounds like something my boss would love to publish.' "
So Felix got to work.
The Laura Bush book turned out to be a success. After 9/11, the focus on the national security adviser became acute.
So Felix got to work again.
She never did get to interview her subject, who was understandably busy prosecuting a war at the time. But Rice's office did cooperate in providing a number of the photographs reproduced in the book.
For all the excitement and power of the present moment, it is the future of Condoleezza Rice that is most intriguing.
"There are so many alternatives for her," says Felix. "She's not the kind of person who makes a five-year plan. There are a lot of people in California who'd like her to run for senator or governor. She could go back to Stanford to teach, or she could be president of a major university. A lot of the buzz around Washington is that in 2004, if Vice President Cheney steps aside, that Bush might ask her to be his running mate."
Which would make Rice a formidable candidate for president in 2008. And if this stellar achiever were to notch that victory, she'd no longer be the most powerful black woman in the world. She'd be the most powerful human on the planet.
Chris, I just knew you would like to read this!
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