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Condoleezza Rice talks successes, failures of past 8 years

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq's first elections are among her proudest accomplishments during her tenure.

Rice, who sat down with CNN's Zain Verjee in a wide-ranging exit interview, also said her historic trip to Libya in September to meet with leader Moammar Gadhafi was one of the high points of her service.

'"The thing I never expected was to actually be in Libya face-to-face with Colonel Gadhafi," Rice said."That probably stands out as one of the extraordinary moments."...

Rice was critical of the news media's focus on last week's incident in Baghdad, where an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President Bush during a news conference, but predicted the long view of history would put the event in proper perspective.

"Those who are supposed to be reporting for history didn't focus on the historical moment, which is that this was the president of the United States in Baghdad, for goodness' sakes, with a freely elected prime minister in a show of friendship," Rice said.

"Do I really think that 30 years from now or 20 years from now or 10 years from now, that will be -- a shoe being thrown at the president -- is somehow going to be what was important about Iraq? Of course not."

Read entire article at CNN