Nearly seven years out office, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright pulls no punches bashing the Bush administration’s handling of certain issues – calling it one of
Albright gave President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney very poor marks and listed goals for the next president to do better that include embracing a global view of climate change.
“This is a purely practical point here, and I think there’s a lot of work to be done” Albright said. “And I think the judgment is that this is one of the worst presidencies we’ve had and people will wonder what it is that the role of the vice president is.”
Albright spoke to a very supportive crowd on January 9 at a Barnes & Noble Bookstore in the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, D.C. to promote her new book [2] “Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership.”
One of the areas Albright saw that the office of the presidency needed to improve upon was the diplomacy of “global warming, climate change and energy issues.” She said the next president needed to do a better job of being aware of the interests of other nations.
“The final big set of issues has to do with that bundle of global warming, climate change, and energy issues,” Albright said. “Now if you look at those issues, it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that they are the kind of issues that require international cooperation, which means the next president has to have a different style – has to have the capability of dealing with other countries and being interested actually, in what their national interest is and in listening.”
Albright served under former Vice President Al Gore, one of the staunch global warming “cheerleaders” who advocates a pledge that would require all developed nations to curb their greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent [4].
[Republican National Committee responds to Albright.] [5]
Albright also sees globalization as an issue the
“There are people who come to my office and say, ‘we have to stop globalization,’” Albright said. “You can’t stop globalization, but I think we have to figure out how to mitigate the worst aspects of it and the problems that have been created and I think one of the worst is that there is a growing gap between the rich and the poor.”
Albright’s message centered on the need for equality – not just domestically, but also on a global scale.
“If we were all rich, that would be very nice,” Albright said. “If we were all poor, it would be too bad, but we would be the same. What the problem is now is the poor know what the rich have as a result of information technology and the spread, generally, of knowledge. And, it creates a whole new host of problems in terms of disquiet and anger.”
Albright appeared on the January 8 NBC’s “Today” [7] and promoted Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for the presidency.
“I know Hillary Clinton very well and she is strong and has lot of resolve and I think would be a great commander-in-chief,” Albright said.