Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- As national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice was in on every major foreign-policy mistake made in George W. Bush's first term. As secretary of state in his second term, Rice has had to deal with the consequences of that disastrous record.

She hasn't had much success, Glenn Kessler asserts in his well-reported, often blistering ``The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.''

Rice took the State Department job knowing she had a mess on her hands. She was determined to rethink hard-line policies on North Korea and Iran, Kessler writes, and to repair relationships damaged by the Iraq War and the administration's seeming disregard of global warming. A critical condition for accepting the post was Bush's commitment to creating a Palestinian state.

Once confirmed, Rice established a punishing travel schedule. Kessler went along on many of her trips, and he's a gifted reporter. His doggedness and attention to detail pay off in fascinating behind-the-scenes sketches of Rice and her top aides making policy on the run.

His fly-on-the-wall accounts of the bitter duels between Rice and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, over Iran's nuclear program are superb. So is his chapter on Rice's failed effort to quickly halt Israel's bombing of Lebanon in July 2006.

Kessler doesn't discount Rice's admirable traits. She quickly grasps complicated issues and can be an effective negotiator. She's aggressive, self-assured (perhaps to a fault), charming, image-conscious and media-savvy.

Few Victories

Yet she falls short, Kessler concludes. Her wins -- an agreement to support India's civilian nuclear program and thus solidify U.S.-Indian relations; some easing of tensions with Europe -- have been few. Like many in the Bush camp, she's secretive. She tends to freeze out the State Department bureaucracy and Congress.

And once an issue is resolved, Kessler says, she fails to follow through. Her most significant flaw is that she has no ``strategic vision.'' For example, her efforts to deal directly with Tehran were ``not accompanied by any broader strategic reexamination of the relationship with Iran.''

The few fresh details Kessler provides about the Bush-Rice relationship leave us hungry for more. The two are deeply religious. They share an impatience with meetings and diplomatic formalities. They see each other or talk on the phone every weekday, and every weeknight Rice sends the president ``a private written note, describing the diplomatic issues she had confronted that day.''

Dramatic Shift

Kessler quotes one of her friends: ``Condi is the least reflective person I know.'' (You have to wonder: Does her friend know George W. Bush?)

What caused Rice's dramatic shift from foreign-affairs realist to missionary idealist bent on spreading American-style democracy? Sept. 11? Ambition? Religious belief? Is she now trending back toward realism? Kessler asks, but Rice fails to provide convincing answers. (The lack of disclosure extends to her personal life.)

Rice is aware that her future reputation -- and Bush's -- are on the line. Kessler says she ``believes that the mistakes the Bush administration has made will be forgotten as long as the big picture -- such as transforming the Middle East -- is viewed as acceptable by historians.''

In the meantime, she tries not to let the day-to-day reversals and humiliations get to her. Her determination to maintain appearances, Kessler says, stems from her childhood training as a figure skater and pianist, ``two skills that demand poise and grace even when you make mistakes. She's still that kind of performer, the ice skater who grins and keeps going even after she has fallen on her bottom.''

The question is, how many more falls can we take?

``The Confidante'' is published by St. Martin's (304 pages, $24.95).

(Michael Glennon is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Michael Glennon at glennon.michael@gmail.com.

Last Updated: September 7, 2007 00:02 EDT