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Hey, Barack!
Madeleine Albright’s got some advice for you
By John Hood
 Yeah,
I know, the Democrats’ nomination for president is still
theoretically up for grabs, but if the stirrings of the nation
are any indication, Obama’s gonna get the nod. Of course,
Barack’s eventual Republican rival is also still to be
determined, but whoever it is, he’s gonna get trounced — big
time.
Yet winning the election will seem like a cakewalk once Obama
gets in to the Oval Office and finds the mess that little George
left behind. The economy is tanking, healthcare’s gone country
club, and we’re fighting two wars. Add the fact that our world
rep is ranked right up there with
Sudan and our future is about as rosy as a black eye, and he’s
got some quandary indeed.
Which means the Big O’s gonna need some advice, and if he’s as
keen as he seems (and I’m sure he is), he’s gonna take it from
wherever he can get it, and that includes former Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright.
You know the madam secretary, whose statecraft has run from
securing Senate approval of the landmark Chemical Weapons
Convention to gifting
North Korea’s
Kim Jong Il with a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. And
you’ve seen the lady operative serving sandwiches and stumping
alongside her best pal Hillary. She’s the consummate Clinton
insider and a consummate diplomat.
Which will make her Memo to the President Elect (Harper
Collins, $26.95) all the more helpful once Barack sets up shop
in the White House, despite the fact that the cat’s probably the
last person on Earth the lady would wanna advise.
Subtitled How We Can Restore America’s Reputation and
Leadership, Albright’s book-length Memo counsels the
next president-elect to, among many other things, lift the
embargo against Cuba and slice Iraq into three autonomous
regions, if only as a respite for a future unity to come. More,
it advises the incoming commander-in-chief to wield dialogue
rather than daggers, and to once and for all end “the politics
of fear.”
Equal parts Machiavelli (recall Albright’s rumored allegiance
with Jesse Helms to thwart former rival Richard Holbrooke’s
nomination as U.N. ambassador) and Dean Acheson (during her
stint at State, the madam secretary led the way for the
expansion of NATO), common sense (Albright chairs the National
Democracy Institute for International Affairs) and compassion
(she also co-chairs the UN Commission on the Legal Empowerment
of the Poor), this is a Memo an operative of any stripe
would be advised to heed.
In other words, the grand dame knows things, and, in the
business of politics, knowledge is power, or at least it will be
again once the Know Nothings leave the Beltway. And in the
knowing, Albright is compelled to share. And why shouldn’t she?
It’s what she does best.
And sharing is what she’ll likely continue to do for as long as
she can. As she said on a recent episode of the Sundance
Channel’s Iconoclasts: “It took me a long time to develop
a voice; now that I have it, I’m not going to shut up.”
Good for you, Madame Secretary. Good for you.
Madeleine Albright reads from, discusses and signs
Memo to the President Elect, at
8 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 17, at
Temple
Judea,
5500 Granada Blvd.,
Coral Gables.
For tickets, call 305-442-4408 or visit www.booksandbooks.com.
Comments? E-mail
letters@miamisunpost.com. |
