Rice Expected to Face Smooth Senate Confirmation as Secretary of State
President Bush turned to his most trusted foreign policy advisor, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, to lead U.S. diplomacy during his second term, replacing Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Rice, who is considered more of a foreign policy hard-liner than Powell, has been 
Bush's national security advisor for four years. But while she's known around the globe, her image on the world stage does not rival Powell's. The retired four-star general has higher popularity ratings than the president.
Rice, 50, worked at the National Security Council in former President Bush's White House and went on to be provost of Stanford University before working in the current president's 2000 campaign. She was widely considered the president's first choice for the top diplomat's job, despite reports that she intended to return to California or was hoping to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.
Besides Rice, Bush also picked his domestic policy advisor Margaret Spellings to replace Dr. Roderick Paige as education secretary.
Spellings, 46, worked for six years as Bush's education advisor in Texas, pushing policies on early reading and student accountability. They became the model for the federal law, No Child Left Behind.
— The Associated Press
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