Andrew Mager

“I wish there were a book that would tell me what to do.” -Warren Harding

Madeleine Albright just published a new book, and she came to CNET to talk about it and the state of American politics. The following is my scratch notes from her talk. Sorry if it’s sloppy, I have never blogged this early in the morning.

John Quincy Adams swam nude in the Potomac.

Five important issues for the next presidency:

• How to deal with terrorists. “We’re not really good on war on nouns”.
• Breakdown of the non-proliferation treaty
• Restore the good name of democracy. It’s identified with military occupation, which is bad.
• Globalization. The growing gap between rich and poor.
• Global warming, climate change.

Two hot wars on the table. Diplomacy is not a game of chess. It’s more like a game of billiards. There are a bunch of balls in the middle of the table, you hope the ball will go where you want it to go, but it hits a lot of other balls on its way.

Iraq will go down as the worst case of American foreign policy, even worse than Vietnam. The winner of Iraq at the moment looks like Iran right now.

We need another way of operating.

“People wanna vote and eat”

If democracy doesn’t work, then they turn to demagogues like Hugo Chavez.

We need to refurbish our relationship with Europe.

Russia is a big new problem, it could be an autocracy.

China. Every time someone talks about China, they say rising. The US has to operate differently.

Over time the US brand has been tarnished. We need to rebrand ourselves.

To whom much is given, much is expected.

“I think we need leaders that are confident, but not certain all the time.”

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Here are more scratch notes from the Molly Wood interview, and Q&A session:

Wood: How long is a normal memo to the president?

Albright: “Normally 10 pages, but they are usually short.”

Wood: Are these candidates suitable to make these changes?

Albright: “I think Hillary Clinton is the person to do this”

Question from the audience: If you can wish for one accomplishment from the current administration before leaving the white house one, what would it be?

Albright: If this president could end the war in Iraq in a way that’s responsible, that would be the best.

Wood: Is there a fear that our impatience will drive the next president to make quick and dirty decisions?

Albright: One of the jobs of the president is to educate the American public. It’s important for our next president to level with us, and treat us like grown-ups. There needs to be a sense that some of these things are gonna take time. The American public has not been treated to the facts.

Olexa: Being from the Czech Republic, what kind of advice would you give to governments of smaller countries that are new to democracy?

Albright: I think there is something called post-communist euphoria. A lot of people were disoriented. It all takes longer. Political development or economic development. It requires help from the outside. It also makes it necessary that the leaders inside understand they have to do it themselves. Globalization is so impersonal. Ethnic conflict is counter-productive.

Bailey: What should the new incoming president look for in the secretary of state? Is there a shining star out there now?

Albright: One of the things I find distasteful in Washington, people are thinking who they are gonna be before they are even in the seat. We need a very different person. Secretary of State is the chief diplomat of the country. The secretary of state has to be willing to take advice.

Lurie: How do you think about executing issues that you discussed? Do you need the American people’s buy-in?

Albright: You do need buy-in. Democracy requires public support. The president is someone who is supposed to really protect us. I think that our civil liberties have been limited based on the fear factor.

I am a great believer in the role of information in democracy. The control of information in autocratic governments is what makes their people disconnect.

Emailed question: Do you read any blogs? What role do they play in our democracy

Blogs are read to me. A lot of misinformation gets out there quickly though. It’s hard to define accurate information. Where do you really get information. The blog provide a whole new avenue, but sometimes they could be damaging. The more that political people understand how blogs work, the better off we will be.

Audience: How do you see our role as employees in a global company, what is our role in American foreign policy?

In terms of being the source of linkage among people, that is your role. The information flow is top-down in autocratic societies. Need to create horizontal information. Your role is creating both bottom-up and horizontal information.

Audience: Confidence and certainty. Do you have any advice on how we can be more confident people. What are the warning signs about crossing into certainty?

Confidence is based on an incredible amount of information and knowledge. The ability to have a wide ranging set of interests. Not being afraid of new ideas. I really think it’s important to listen to people you totally disagree with. I listen to Rush Limbaugh when I drive to work, and it’s amazing I don’t kill somebody. I think it makes me more confident about the things I believe.

The higher you rise in any organization, the more likely it is people wanna please you. You make think you have said something brilliant, but it’s not. Watch out for all the people around you thinking you are smart. I would prefer to have people disagree with me, rather than having people saying I am the greatest thing ever.

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I bought two copies of her book, and snapped a photo of her. Overall, I was very impressed with her talk. I will definitely read this book soon.

Oh yea, I wanted to show her this blog post when she signed my book, but I had her name spelled “Madeline”. One of her publicists helped me out, and I quickly fixed it just in time for her to see the post