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BY YOEL ROTH

In print | Published April 10, 2008

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appeared at Bryn Mawr College Wednesday afternoon in support of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Ms. Albright, currently a professor at Georgetown University, began her remarks by noting, “The world is a mess.”

She identified five major issues facing the next American president: how to fight terrorism without creating more anti-Americanism, how to solve problems of nuclear proliferation, how to restore a good name to democracy abroad, how to mitigate the negative aspects of globalization and how to address the concerns of global warming and climate change.

Democrat or Republican, Clinton or Obama, she noted that these issues are unavoidable and, to her thinking, will become the primary talking points of all the candidates in the 2008 election.

Further, she noted that the next president will need to resolve the burgeoning crises stemming from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not only are the domestic problems of those countries problematic, but she claims that they have led to considerable instability in both Pakistan and Iran.

Ms. Albright’s presentation took a turn for the personal in discussing both her criticism of the Bush administration and her support of Senator Clinton. Her analysis of the foreign policy failings of the Bush administration centered on two ideas: that President Bush’s policies have been both unilateral and unidimensional.

First, she argued that “going it alone” is not a reasonable solution to the problems of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Second, and more concerning, she argues that the Bush administration has, in all but a few instances, allowed Africa and Latin America to fall to the side.

Citing the emergent crises in Kenya and Zimbabwe and the resurgence of totalitarianism in Latin America following the end of the Clinton administration, Secretary Albright claimed that the Bush administration’s fixation on the problems of the Middle East have led to the neglect of less media-genic problems elsewhere.

On the subject of Senator Clinton’s candidacy, Albright focused on her experiences with Mrs. Clinton while serving first as United States ambassador to the United Nations, and then as Secretary of State.

Drawing a comparison to Eleanor Roosevelt, she remarked that Mrs. Clinton made a habit of “digging deep and getting very interested in the issues.”

In a statement that resonated with the primarily female Bryn Mawr audience, Albright applauded Mrs. Clinton’s strong track record on women’s issues, including her remarks in China as first lady that “women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights.”

Responding to criticism that Senator Clinton’s experience as first lady was limited exclusively to women’s issues, she characterized such remarks as extremely insulting to women, and ignorant of the role of women internationally.

In closing her prepared remarks, she commented that she would support Senator Clinton’s candidacy whether or not she had worked in the Clinton administration, and that “it would be revolutionary to have the first woman president of the United States, but also to have her be the single most qualified, experienced candidate currently running.”

College Democrats member Doug Gilchrist-Scott ’09, who was not able to travel to Bryn Mawr to attend the event, said,

“I think big name speakers are a great way to drum up support for a candidate … It’s unfortunate, though, that she didn’t come to Swat. That would’ve been preferable, in my opinion.”

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