Madeleine Albright comes to town

You missed it. Tonight I went to the VFW hall a few blocks from my house to see former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She came to town to stump for Obama. I just started reading one of her books, “The Mighty and the Almighty” about the role of religion in international relations. Anyway…S

he was amazing—very smart, great sense of humor, down to earth, very sensible, approaching everything with unassailable logic. She made a brief presentation about six major issues that she sees as critical for the future:

- dealing with Al Qaeda

- nuclear proliferation

-restoring the good name of democracy (supporting not imposing democracy on others)

- negative aspects of globalization—i.e. gap between the rich and poor

- energy-environment, global financial mess

- two wars : Afghanistan Iraq and unintended consequences like the rise of Iran. She sees it as being worse than Vietnam especially because of the pressure of refugees on surrounding countries.

At times it was like listening to a college lecture, but what a professor!

She remarked that the next president will need to work with China, Russia, India. Latin America, Africa—everyone. In describing Obama, she feels he makes good judgments, thinks through problems. Will be a ‘confident’ president, rather than a ‘certain’ president. A ‘certain’ president doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. Obama asked questions, getting different viewpoints. Will be able to prioritize issues.

In answer to questions from the audience, she was confident that we will be out of Iraq in sixteen months. She characterized Vladimir Putin as very smart, but mean. President Karzai of Pakistan is a very nice guy, but he’s more the mayor of Kabul than president of the whole of Afghanistan.

Gosh, I think it would be great to have her as Obama’s Secretary of State. ATt 71, I wonder if she's interested in the job.