block her if she was nominated and the president decided to go in a different direction, nominating john kerry instead, but national security adviser, well, that position does not require confirmation. the woman nominated to take rice's place is samantha power. she covered the bosnian war in the 1990s. she was a national security adviser for barack obama's first run, until hillary clinton beat obama in ohio in 2008. power called clinton a monster in a newspaper interview promping her to quit the campaign, but she came back to serve as a special assistant and she and clinton ended up working together. more important than that kerfuffle was power's point of view. she won a pulitzer prize for her 2002 book "a problem from hell" and it was critical for america not intervening in the most