Condi Now: The Cost of Loyalty

The bond between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush is her chief asset—and a critical weakness—according to an analysis in the Washington Post. Both have been changed by the relationship; he from a foreign policy novice to veteran, and she, perhaps more profoundly, from a hard-headed realist to a convert in Bush's faith in the power of democracy.

The analysis is adapted from a new biography, "The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy," by Glenn Kessler. Kessler says Bush describes Rice as a "sister." "We are completely in sync," Bush once told United Nation diplomats. "When she speaks, you know that she is speaking for me." (More Condoleezza Rice stories.)