Condi Rice's emphasis on consensus did not serve President Bush well.

When George W. Bush's close confidant Condi Rice was National Security Advisor, Donald Rumsfeld made a number of constructive suggestions to her as to how she could conduct meetings more efficiently and effectively. She favored a "bridging approach," and consensus, that ironically led to disharmony among the Defense and State Departments. Rumsfeld thinks it reflected her academic background, where, as Provost of Stanford, she learned techniques that worked in the academic arena, but did not serve the best interests of President Bush or our country.