Condi's Race to Save Bush's Face

George Bush, the U.S. president, is only 6 months away from propulsion from the White House. According to the statistics and polls, George Bush is the most hated president in U.S. history and has made every effort to reduce this public hatred. Election rivalries are much more closely followed than the vicissitudes of the White House, which fact reveals that Americans are waiting for the Bush presidency to be over. Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. foreign minister, who has been standing beside the president with many different titles and statuses over the past seven years, is making much more effort than the other American ministers to save the president's and her own reputation.

Rice has started many trips to the middle east and other countries to reduce some of the negative pressure on the White House in these last months of Bush's presidency. Rice has started a race against time. She has to use the six remaining months in the best way - to submit her successes in U.S. political history.

The U.S. Secretary of State has six months to gather her stuff from her office in the State Department and say "farewell" to the powerful title. Meanwhile there are still many unfinished projects and documents on Rice’s office desk, including the the Iran and North Korea nuclear issues and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Rice also has to think about the president’s dream of working out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his presidency . Rice has started her trips and in Washington, spends most of her time in meetings with international high-ranking officials.

During the past months, Rice has traveled the world twice to add achievements to that part of her resume that covers her four years in the State Department. During this week, she will also have meetings and discussions with Pakistani, Chinese, Israeli, Italian and Palestinian officials. Her goals in meetings with the Pakistani officials are quite clear. Some days ago she harshly criticized Pakistan, directing them to stop Al Qaeda's activities in that country. Thus, she will repeat her directions to the Pakistani government regarding the repulsion of paramilitaries.

Also in China, she will be seeking China’s support in repelling Iran and North Korea; and in Palestine, she seeks to fulfill Bush’s dreams of putting an end to the fifty years of conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Meanwhile, other members of the Bush administration, excluding Condoleezza Rice, are trying to represent Bush as a tired president who is counting the days, waiting for his presidential period to end. Maybe that’s why other members of the administration are not planning on taking trips to countries around the world for last minute achievements. Rice’s recent nine day trip was an unexpected one, resulting in a negotiation without a firm answer on the Iran or North Korea nuclear issue. During this trip, she entered the Persian Gulf and then she took part in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore and immediately moved on to Australia, New Zealand and Samoa.

Before the Olympic opening ceremony, Rice has one month to rest and relax from the wearisome and tiredness of her worldwide trips, although because of her opponents in the U.N., her presence in this ceremony will not be an easy one.

In New Zealand, as an answer to a question that she was asked concerning when she is planning to rest, she answered, pointing out the exact time of the beginning of the new president’s presidential period, January 20th, on 12:01.

According to the U.S. State Department officials, Rice’s massive trips have enabled her to represent herself as the US Secretary of State who has mades most trips in U.S. history. Rice’s unbelievable pace during the last two months is in the shadow of the rising heat of America’s 2008 presidential election, in which, foreign diplomacy is the main issue of concern between Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, and John McCain, the Republican candidate.

Although none of these activities has resulted in any achievement for the Bush administration, some political analysts believe that the restless meetings of Rice, who holds the second highest title in Bush administration, means that with a 180 degree change in approach to foreign diplomacy, Bush is seeking relations with countries that have been listed as supporters of terrorism for eight years.