Condi or Susan: What Kind of Rice Do You Like?

Barack Obama has placed his order for a new kind of rice: Condi's out -- and Susan's in.

Condoleezza Rice

Susan Rice

That's Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador-designate to the U.N. And no, she's no relation to the outgoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (Place your bets now on how long reporters will point out that the two black women are not related.)

Beyond their name, ethnicity, and connections to Stanford (Susan as student, Condi as professor), there are striking parallels:

Both Rices were cultivated by Albrights -- Susan by Madeleine, Condi by Madeleine's father Josef Korbel. And as foreign policy tutors to future presidents, each Rice was an essential part of her boss' diet.

So how do the two Rices compare?

Condi Rice has always been self-possessed, sometimes rigid, with nary a movement left to chance. She's always been a Rice Pilaf. And at age 54, she's approaching Long Grain.

In October 2002 Harry Belafonte accused Condi of being a servile Uncle Ben's Rice. It was a harsh critique -- and misguided since, after all, the Mars company (which owns Uncle Ben's Rice), elevated the Uncle Ben character to Chairman of the company.

Susan Rice is younger and brasher, a former assistant Secretary of State under Clinton who stunned her former bosses by jumping ship to join the Obama campaign. Her history suggests a Wild Rice.

But because of Obama's internationalist perspective, rooted in a childhood spent in Indonesia, Susan will need to be more of a Sticky Rice, connecting with other members at the U.N. (My mother loves sticky rice with mango, but that's more Thai.)

She'll have to be tough at times, yes, but she'll also have to be sweet, not unlike this delicious rice-based dessert:


Gemblong is an Indonesian treat: deep fried sticky rice coated with caramel. Yummy!

But beware: Conservatives leery of Obama's European sympathies are concerned that Susan is more of an Orzo - pasta masquerading as rice!

It's hard to know which kind of Rice America needs right now. (The troubles in the Indian Subcontinent call for a Basmati Rice.)