American Morning

Joining us to talk more about that and some other things, in Miami, Democratic consultant Victor Kamber. And in Washington, Cliff May, former RNC communications director, now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Cliff, this has been tried before, trying to polish the image of the United States in the Middle East.

What does Karen bring to the plate that her predecessors did not, because it’s met with — to be charitable — only limited success thus far?

CLIFF MAY, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Yes, it’s a very important job. It’s about telling America’s story abroad, in the Middle East, importantly; everywhere else, as well; and about explaining America’s policies. I don’t think this is an impossible task. Essentially, America’s policy right now is to spread arena — is to spread freedom and to push back tyranny.

But since the late 1990s, we haven’t had a United States Information Agency. That agency was disestablished in the late 1990s. Now, Karen has to find the right ways to get the message out to people in the world that we’re going to support the democracy activists from Beirut, as we just saw with Brent Sadler, and throughout the world.

CAFFERTY: Victor, there’s a saying that a really good salesman can sell snow to the Eskimos. There is some question about whether this policy of the United States is a saleable commodity in that part of the world.

What do you think?

VICTOR KAMBER, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Well, I think that’s the issue. I think Karen Hughes is probably very talented. She’s good at public relations. That’s her forte. That’s what she comes out. She’s bright. She’s articulate. She’s not going to set policy, but she understand this administration’s approach. She understands the president. He can begin a sentence, she can finish it. They have that kind of a relationship.

But the question is now can she take that sentence that’s been put together and sell it? Is that the right policy for the world?

Up until this date, we don’t know. We still have a situation in the Mideast that’s not terribly stable. From week to week things change. And we have an administration that likes to take credit before things are resolved.

I mean, remember, mission, you know, accomplished still rings in my ears. A week ago, Lebanon was resolved. Then the, you know, former prime minister of Lebanon is back in power. Today we have this mass rally. Who knows what’s happening? She’s got to sell a policy that is yet unsure.

CAFFERTY: All right, on another subject, in a career trajectory that would put a 4th of July bottle rocket to shame, Condoleezza Rice has gone in short order from being an adviser to then Governor Bush to being national security adviser to being secretary of state and now they’re talking about maybe she’ll be president of the United States.

She says she doesn’t want to be president of the United States.

Does anybody care about this?

Cliff? MAY: Oh, people love to speculate. Look, I think the point is this, Jack. Condoleezza Rice would make a wonderful candidate. She’d probably make a great president. But anybody who understands anything about how modern campaigns are run in this country knows that it’s pretty much impossible to do that while you’re serving as secretary of state.

If you’re a senator, you miss some votes, you get criticized for it, so what? But how do you show up in New Hampshire rather than in Moscow when you’re secretary of state? How do you raise money?

I just don’t think you can do it unless you quit that job first. And I don’t think she’s going to quit that job any time soon.

CAFFERTY: Victor, on the Democratic side of the ledger, Hillary Clinton is the odds on favorite in all the polls at this point, with three years away, three and a half years away from another election. But she’s the odds on favorite among the Democrats.

Would Condoleezza Rice give her a run?

The Republicans, as I look at the field going into 2008, are a little short on viable presidential timber.

KAMBER: Well, first of all, I think the Democrats are blessed with a bevy of candidates. Hillary Clinton clearly is the frontrunner today. Condoleezza Rice, we don’t know.

Cliff said it best — I don’t know that she’d be a great candidate. She might be a good president because she’s bright, but who even knows that? We don’t know what she stands for in terms of economic policy, health care, Social Security, you name all the issues that are prevalent. And we don’t know if she could even get out of the starting gate as a candidate.

I think John McCain, let’s not minimize, Republicans do have one or two people, not a whole bevy, I think it’s correct. But they have several people that I think will make a formidable race next time.

But I think Hillary Clinton could be our next president.

CAFFERTY: Thanks, fellows.

Victor Kamber is a Democratic consultant; Cliff May, former RNC communications director, currently with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Thanks for being with us. MAY: Thanks, Jack.