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Sinking in the Polls: Karen Hughes' Public Diplomacy Moment
Karen Hughes, George W. Bush's longtime confidante and spin-stress, is one of his few loyal creatures left on the sinking USS Dubya. Unlike other White House cronies, Ms. Hughes refuses to fade away -- at least for now -- into the private-sector sunset, trying as best she can to stay in the Beltway limelight.
Her most recent effort to bring positive attention to her much criticized performance as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs appeared in her article in the Washington Post, "Sinking in the Polls" (September 17).
One cannot resist asking: in choosing the title for her piece, was Ms. Hughes inadvertently thinking about her boss' low performance ratings among her fellow Americans? Perhaps she was, subconsciously, but the main point of her op-ed was far more upbeat: America's Public Diplomacy Moment -- let's define it as when citizens of other countries are willing to listen to, and have a dialogue with, the U.S. -- has finally arrived. Or has it?
Public diplomacy -- programs "engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences," to quote the State Department homepage -- can now have a greater impact than before because the world's view of bin Laden "is turning darker than [his] newly dyed beard," according to the Under Secretary. This "drop in support for violent extremists," she says, "presents an opportunity to expand our efforts to nurture common interests with people overseas and work with them to counter al-Quaeda's attempts to radicalize young people."
"English-language teaching, educational exchanges, music and sports diplomacy," Ms. Hughes notes (without mentioning crucial information programs such as international broadcasting), now face fewer obstacles in creating "more positive views of our country," given the evaporating attraction of bin Laden's terror message throughout the world.
Ms. Hughes cites the Pew Global Attitudes Project as her source for the growing disapproval of bin Laden, so her contention about terrorism's declining appeal is hard to refute.
Her article, however, not only fails to document what (if anything) her public diplomacy programs have done to lessen bin Laden's influence, but overlooks another key point: lack of support for bin Laden does not necessarily translate into approval overseas for Mr. Bush's foreign policy (and public diplomacy is, after all, an instrument and reflection of policy).
An alert reader of the Washington Post, Robert Anton Mertz of Bethesda, had this pearl of wisdom about Ms. Hughes (letter to the editor, September 22):
Karen P. Hughes ["Sinking in the Polls," op-ed, Sept. 17] ... barely mentioned that the formerly positive view of America held by an overwhelming majority of people in the Middle East has dropped precipitously.
In Turkey, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project, those with a favorable view of America dropped from 52 percent of residents surveyed in 2002 to 9 percent of those surveyed today. In large part this is due to hostility to U.S. foreign policies in the region, but it is also due to the ineptitude of public diplomacy under Hughes' leadership at the State Department.
Not loving bin Laden and terrorism, in other words, does not automatically mean loving George W. Bush and his policies. So, Ms. Hughes' public diplomacy programs -- some of which, created decades before she was under secretary, certainly can contribute to better US relations with the rest of the world in the right conditions -- continue to face great difficulties in their implementation and effectiveness, due to their inevitable association with an administration criticized and hated the world over for the barbaric havoc it has been unleashing overseas for years.
Bin Laden may be a declining problem for American public diplomacy, but the president's actions abroad continue to be a major one, if not the major one.
What steps has Ms. Hughes (or Secretary of State Rice, for that matter) taken to change the president's foreign policy, so harmful to is public diplomacy, in a substantive way? (Hughes' omission of information programs in her article suggests that her public diplomacy has, in fact, essentially given up on efforts to explain or even describe this policy). We are still in Iraq, Guantanamo remains open, the Middle East continues to be in a state a turmoil because the administration is unable (or unwilling) to work on a peaceful solution to its problems.
No wonder Ms. Hughes' public diplomacy -- even if it includes, in her words, "teach[ing] English to thousands of young people in more than 40 majority-Muslim countries" -- is indeed marked by a basic ineptitude: its failure to change (or even explain) policies that mock and disregard the rest of the world.
An American Public Diplomacy Moment may never occur, given the enormous damage done to the US reputation by the administration Under Secretary Hughes serves. But this much-needed moment could come -- let us hope -- with a new president in the White House who has the ability to show, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." John Brown, a former Foreign Service officer, compiles the "Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review," available free by requesting it at johnhbrown30@hotmail.com
18 Comments so far
Show AllI wasn't aware that terrorism was particularly popular throughout the world at any time, and now that the US has proved itself to be the greatest terrorist, naturally its approval ratings have declined to nothing. I'd bet Bu$h is more hated than Bin Laden. Karen Hughes is pitiful.
The PR people (Condi and Highes are two examples) will be the last ones to jump off the SS Dubya.
I for one would bet money that in a fair debate between GWB and OBL, Osama would win in front of a USA audience. No doubt about it.
Osama said he did not blow the trade centre. I believe him to be honest in this regard.
"teach[ing] English to thousands of young people in more than 40 majority-Muslim countries"
I think having a few Americans learn Arabic would be much more effective, not to mention safer
Osama is the least of her hurdles -- and she knows it. She got orders from the White House to earn her salary and start spinning again. Thus her OpEd.
Karen Hughes - Mentally Ill Loyal Bushie
"Since the 1990s, Hughes has worked with George W. Bush: first as director of communications while he was governor of Texas, from 1995 to 2000, and then as counselor to the president from 2001 to 2002, while he was President of the United States.
Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson once said of Hughes, "I've obviously been lied to a lot by campaign operatives, but the striking thing about the way she lied was she knew I knew she was lying, and she did it anyway. There is no word in English that captures that. It almost crosses over from bravado into mental illness."
Hughes left the Bush administration in July 2002 to return to Texas, but remained in daily contact with the Bush reelection campaign by telephone and e-mail, and spoke personally with Bush several times a week.
In 2002, Hughes was a member of the White House Iraq Group, the secretive task force charged with selling the U.S. public on the alleged dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.
In August 2004, Hughes returned to full-time service with the Bush campaign
Americans learning Arabic! Thats a big laugh as complacency would most certainly take care of that.
As to Ms. Hughes and Ms. Rice, they are two tired old jokers with no worthwhile successes to justify their presence in the Bush administration.
"We shall be judged by our deeds". America has committed too many heinous crimes in this world to be regarded as anything but despicables.
I wonder if 50% of the "disapproves" aren't disappointed that al Quaeda has yet to deliver on its promises to try again for the Pentagon.
Standard GOPathological theme: ignore your lying eyes, do what we say, or we will kill you one way or the other. Why the rest of the ungrateful world still hates the greatest country in the history of the universe, the one that has never, ever made a single mistake and only blows the living hell out of "bad" people, the only one to use nukes, the one that uses the most oil, the one that pollutes the most, the one with 130 secret CIA prisons, the one with over 700 military bases around the globe, the one with an official policy of "benevolent hegemony" and "full spectrum dominance," the one that arrests people for playing footsie, the one that tazerers students, the one that locked up over 700,000 pot smokers in just the last few years...
Why the world doesn't love us is mindboggling, really. Is it possible KH is unaware that feriners read stuff on the Internets tubes, too?
the author places the bar too high for bushco.
what is with this absolute fixation with proof?
like cheney's "absolute proof" that saddam had wmd.
proof schmoof - its true if bushco says its true.
(terror - fear - terror - terror - fear - terror, this is a subliminal message, fear terror fear fear)
that is all you need to know.
maybe a couple of weeks in one of them fema prison camps would straighten this writer out. clarify his vision.
a little re-education is a good thing. as we see in bush's case - a very little education.
as bush has so starkly pointed out: yer either fer us or agin us.
i'm sure once we teach them arab boys how to speak in english this is all going to clear up like a pimple on bush's ass.
hey....maybe we could send them arab boys to the fema camps. they'll be pining for the good old days at guantanamo i'll tell you.
that's all you need to know.
(end of subliminal message - fear terror terror terror fear - resistance is futile. go shopping)
10-4 i'm outta here, going shopping - though i do strangely feel a little antsy!
The War goes and the war goes on.
If we leave Iraq we admit that we lost the war and you and I know Americans like winners.
So we stay knowing that we lost and pretending that we can win.
To have it both ways is fantastic for the Bush Administration because one can not argue with them.
As has been alluded to, very few people have ever approved of terrorism, which is why the state sponsored terrorism that Blackwater and the US military are visiting on Iraq have earned bin Laden's place in the sun for the US.
I don't know why Karen even bothers because she has such a lousy product to sell, and few people in the world are as big a bunch of suckers as the US citizenry. Karen could do a good job of selling Bush to America because of the lack of sophistication among the American public, but there is no way that she can sell America to people who see it in action on a daily basis. If she wants to change people's attitudes, she is going to have to change the product to something that the people approve of. Painting lipstick on pigs doesn't fool anyone, especially in the Middle East.
Ms.Huges, tell your boss,you spell Peace, P- E- A -C - E...After all I am sure it is not a word he uses often. Oh, and go slow!
Didn't sweet misguided Karen leave Dubya a long time ago to "spend more time with her family?" Evidentially her family got tired of her. Can't say as I blame them.
("teach[ing] English to thousands of young people in more than 40 majority-Muslim countries"
I think having a few Americans learn Arabic would be much more effective, not to mention safer)
I agree with that. Understanding is the best defense against wars and the special interests that profit from them.
It might be a good idea to teach English to American children too. Don't you think?
Dennis J Kucinich being the next president, and I'd have to say if he comes out of his party's convention with a first ballot victory, that will probably be the case, It's good to have positive thoughts anyway.
Dennis J Kucinich being the next president, and I'd have to say if he comes out of his party's convention with a first ballot victory, that will probably be the case, It's good to have positive thoughts anyway.
Yes, and teaching English to American children is basic since white ones in most of this country can't even understand worth a damn, and have such poor comprehension they grow up to vote for the GOP or the Klantons.
nov 6 2007
she has announced her resignation.
because, she said, all muslims have learned english ;)