Karen Hughes, a long-time friend and public relations adviser of President Bush, recently told Associated Press (AP) that she would be leaving the White House--again. As counselor in his first term, she was to put the best spin on his words and actions. When his popularity declined, Ms. Hughes decided in July 2002 to return to Texas and “spend more time with her family.” Politicians often feel that desire when they run into trouble.
Mr. Bush nevertheless continued to seek Karen’s advice. In August 2004, he gave her an office on Air Force One to plan the 2004 Republican Convention and the final weeks of the campaign.
As the President’s bungling foreign policy came under growing attacks and ridicule worldwide, he decided that Ms. Hughes was the best person to lead a public relations counteroffensive to improve his and America’s image abroad. According to the State Department’s web site, Hughes’ role was to “marginalize the violent extremists” and “foster a sense of common interests and common values between Americans and people of different countries.”
She was expected to explain the objectives of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and counter the Muslim world’s long-standing criticism of the U.S. government’s persistent bias in favor of Israel. Yet, neither her education nor her overseas experience had prepared her to relate knowledgeably to Islam and its 1.3 billion multinational adherents.
In September 2005, she was sworn in as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. She proposed a “rapid-response unit” and “forward-deploy regional SWAT teams.” She increased the number of Arabic speakers for interviews with Arab media. She sent American sports heroes, such as Cal Ripken and Michelle Kwan, overseas to show foreigners what Americans are really like. To pay for these initiatives, she almost doubled the annual public diplomacy budget to $900 million.
As was to be expected, Arabs repeatedly criticized Hughes for her “lack of understanding of the region.” In March 2006, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld disparaged the public relations efforts of both Rice and Hughes: “If I were grading, I would say we probably deserve a D or a D-plus as a country as to how well we’re doing in the battle of ideas that’s taking place in the world today.”
Today Mr. Bush and Ms. Hughes seem to be as frustrated as ever with his low ratings at home and abroad. She admitted to AP that her mission remains incomplete. She called it a “long-term challenge” to get America’s image restored to what it used to be.
AP observed that "polls show no improvement in the world's view of the U.S. since Hughes took over. A Pew Research Center survey earlier said the unpopular Iraq war is a persistent drag on the U.S. image and has helped push favorable opinion of the United States in Muslim Indonesia, for instance, from 75 percent in 2000 to 30 percent last year.”
In Ms. Hughes’ defense it has to be said that already two years ago she was reported to have told Mr. Bush and Secretary Rice that a more active and decisive U.S. government involvement in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict would do more than anything else to improve U.S. standing worldwide. Regrettably, Hughes pleaded in vain because the President’s neoconservative advisers disagreed with her advice.
AP reported that the President intends to replace Hughes with commentator James Glassman, a fellow of the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute and present chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees the Voice of America.
In recent appointments, the President tried to find better qualified successors, as when he replaced Harriet Miers with Sam Alito, Scott McClellan with Tony Snow, or Alberto Gonzales with Michael Mukasey. Perhaps Glassman will be more successful than Karen Hughes in dressing up failed policies with skillful propaganda.