“The time for diplomacy is now,” Condi Rice told senators at her

confirmation hearing to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. She then

added, “If I am confirmed, public diplomacy will be a top priority for me

and for the professionals I lead.” This matter of public diplomacy is important. But it must go far beyond fence-mending with France and Germany or other UN Security Council members who oppose the U.S. in waging the Battle of Iraq. One of the failings of the Powell administration at the State Department was his inability to market President Bush’s key message of the transformational effect of spreading freedom and democracy in the Middle East and around the world. This is a powerful message that has huge potential to garner greater support if not among certain foreign governments, then surely among the majority of people who live under the rule of governments that are hostile to the U.S. war against totalitarian radical Islamism. [Read the rest on <a

href=”http://lkmp.blogspot.com/”>Kudlow’s Money Politics]