Capping four years as the Bush administration's top diplomat, a teary-eyed Condoleezza Rice bade a spirited farewell Friday to an assembly of several hundred State Department employees. Rice was greeted by thunderous applause as she appeared in the building's C Street lobby to thank the staff in optimistic oratory that echoed President George W. Bush's 2005 Inauguration speech in which he said he would fight for freedom in every nation with the “ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.” Rice said her own story – the first black woman to serve as secretary of state – showed how far the United States has come in making its ethnic, religious and racial diversity a catalyst for social progress. “And that's why I know that one day there is going to be a world in which every man, woman and child will be free from tyranny,” she said. Her closest aides, who bade farewell to her in a private ceremony, gave her as a present the chair she used at the State Department, according to Sean McCormack, her spokesman who also left his job Friday. On Thursday night, Bush bid his farewell, defending his unpopular policies. “America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil,” he said as he harkened back to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. “As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11,” Bush said in a prime-time address from the East Room of the White House. “But I never did.” Leaving office with the highest disapproval rating since Richard Nixon, Bush said, “You may not agree with some of the tough decisions I have made, but I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions.”
