Further Coating the Reputation: Condi's Breakthrough at Augusta

If you catalog political celebrities making aggressive use of the PR industry (and visual media) to reconstitute severely damaged reputations, I’m sure you’ll find Condi Rice at or near the top of that list. (Didn’t she just knock out her second or third post-Bush Administration biography, by the way?)

What we see in this news photo from Augusta is nothing short of an image management grand slam – Rice riding a feminist breakthrough in this notorious bastion of white male country club culture as further reputation redemption. Albeit a pioneer in breaking the all-male barrier at Augusta, many would say she more properly belongs in prison stripes than the storied green jacket.

By the way, Condi might be sharing the moment with some folks standing in our direction, but knowing that’s where the cameras are, I’m sure the sense of intimacy (because she’s not one of the old boys, right?) is just as much aimed at us.

(photo: Ron Williams/AP Photo caption: Condoleezza Rice, right, former Secretary of State and new Augusta National member, laughs on the practice range with members Dave Dorman, left, and Pat Battle, center, Sunday, April 7, 2013, at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore were the first women invited to join the home course of the Masters.)