Next US president

Though she was the national security advisor, but without question she played a critical, if largely hidden, role in the overall direction of the president's foreign policy. Her job was to translate Bush's strategic instincts into an intellectual framework, usually in the form of major presidential speeches, particularly those on Iraq.

During her days in university she became fascinated by the study of power. Her mentor was the soviet specialist Joseph Korbel, the father of future secretary of state Ms. Albright. An able student, Rice was vaulted ahead into various prestigious fellowship in academe and government. After graduating from the University of Denver at 19 and getting a masters degree at Notre Dame, she taught at Stanford and worked at the Pentagon for the then chairman of the joint chiefs. When the Middle East blew up in the winter of 2002, top US government officials wanted to exile Palestinian leader Arafat. It fell to Rice to bridge the gap by suggesting that the US call for new leadership in the Palestinian authority. Rice and Powel worked closely to produce a UN resolution on weapon inspection in Iraq. The document was littered with traps designed to bring the inspection process to a quick end and trigger a war. It took eight weeks but the final paper passed the Security Council 15-0. It's not that Rice believed the war could be avoided. But she made sure America had the international support if war came. And in 2005 she has replaced her first boss to take over the state department.

On 4 November Bush got the consent of US people to hold office for four more years. Republicans retain power. Though this result transmitted a wave of shock omni-directionally"..and many came down heavily on the state Ohio blaming it for " Failing" the world, but to be impartial, did the US people had a better choice? Bush terrorised their thoughts by reminding them of the memories of 9/11, releasing those documents, conversions over telephones...and as his last trump card inviting Osama Bin Laden to issue a fresh threat in the wake of election. Any chances, whatsoever, John Kerry had must have been demolished by that Laden speech. US people voted for Bush and set a new record. The holy smoke of the anti terrorist campaign is likely to persist for a long, long time. And after the 9/11 the US administration has forced the people to believe that they are vulnerable to terrorism. To fight this holy war, American people will always look for some one as terrorising still patriot like Bush. And democrats simply don't have that unique combination. So none should blame Ohio or any other state if they vote for the Republican four years from now. Is there any one more qualified and close to that quality other than Condi Rice?

Her father encouraged her to believe that she could be the president one day, though at the time most of the blacks were not allowed to vote. "One day I'll be in that house," she told her father.