The day before Condoleezza Rice sat down with the Financial Times, the outgoing secretary of state posed for some 600 photos with her state department officials. Soon after the FT’s time with her came to a close, she was due to answer the questions of another interviewer: Venus Williams, the tennis champion.

Ms Rice remains a star during her last month in office. But, in the media flurry before she heads back to Stanford University to write a book about her parents, her effort to burnish her legacy is complicated.