Madeleine Albright Answered Your Questions on U.S. Foreign Policy, Obama Ticket

RAY SUAREZ: Welcome to a special edition of the NewsHour's Online forum. I'm Ray Suarez.

All this week, the Online NewsHour will be asking Democratic analysts and leaders your questions as we report from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Our first guest is former secretary of state and now leader of the Albright Group, Madeleine Albright. Secretary Albright, thanks for joining us.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Great to be with you, Ray.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, as the Democrats begin this convention in Denver, what's the number one foreign challenge facing the United States?

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: I think how to reestablish American leadership generally in a way that we are respected and can in fact act as a partner with countries to improve everybody's lives. That is a very big challenge: how to not to have terrorists, how to deal with nuclear proliferation, how to deal with the growing gap between the rich and the poor, and energy and environment.

And then, Ray, every day there is a new challenge. This last couple of weeks, Georgia has emerged as a major challenge to the international system, or Pakistan, where the leadership has just changed and where they have a nuclear capability. So I think the challenges are huge, which is why we need a new president to deal with the new challenges.

RAY SUAREZ: Why do you say "reestablish"? Do you maintain that those links with the rest of the world have been shattered, lost?

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: I think very damaged. I was very proud to represent the Untied States. I think there was a desire for our leadership at the time.

I think that Iraq has been the greatest disaster in American foreign policy because of what it has done to our reputation, our standing as a country that abides by the rule of law, that is not basically there as a threat.

Some of the polling data shows that many people in the world see the United States as dangerous and I think that the United States is such a force for good if in fact we look at how to be partners with the countries in the world in order to try to achieve a sense of peace and stability.

RAY SUAREZ: B.B. writes from Detroit, Michigan, to ask how a new president would go about mending our international reputation.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, I think to make clear that we would end the war in Iraq, and Senator Obama has made very clear from the beginning that he would be pulling down the number of troops in Iraq, that Iraq has no military solution, that it has to have a political solution; by closing Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and dealing with the Abu Ghraib problem; by in fact also thinking about how to deal with the problems of nuclear proliferation, that how to really respect other countries and be partners with them. And I think that makes a difference.

RAY SUAREZ: One of the most persistent critiques from the Republican Party of Senator Obama is that he has very short-term experience in international relations. And this weekend came new polling results that show a gap between the perception of voters over which candidate provides more international experience, offers more international experience. How do you respond to that critique?

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, first of all, I think that Senator Obama has some unique international experience in the story of his life and his capability of understanding what's happening in other countries.

And he is somebody who is very willing to reach out and get advice. And he has just named, I think, a remarkable person as his vice president. There is nobody that has better international experience than Joe Biden. He has dealt with every problem. He's traveled abroad, and I think that that combination of the kind of judgment that Senator Obama has shown is really truly remarkable, and he's now matched it with the kind of experience that Senator Biden has.

And I'll tell you something. If the American public wants to see four more years of the kinds of policies that we've had under the Bush-Cheney administration, they may - should look at John McCain; it's just a continuation.

Why would we want to trust our national security to somebody who has views that are very similar to the views of this administration that has really done so much to damage America's reputation?

RAY SUAREZ: Kirk asks from Shreveport, Louisiana, whether you would consider serving in an Obama administration.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Oh, of course I would, but I've had the best job that is possible to have, the secretary of state, and you really don't have it twice. But I'm very happy to help in any way I can. I so believe in Senator Obama and Joe Biden, and Democrats in office because I think that we do a great job of protecting American national security.

RAY SUAREZ: Barbara writes from Portland, Oregon: "What advice would you give Senator Obama in dealing with Iraq, Afghanistan, and our current problems with Russia?"

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I think on Iraq, I really do think that in addition to pulling down the troops, that it's very important to understand that there can't be a solution without the neighborhood, that in fact there has to be a surge in diplomacy, that the problems that exist about cross-border fighting or the refugees that have now left Iraq has to be dealt with internationally.

I think on Russia I would make very clear that we don't want to go back to the Cold War, but that there are certain behaviors of Russia that are unacceptable in the international community: Invading a sovereign country is among them. That we have to have a review of some of the agreements that we had with the Russians. So a very kind of pragmatic, balanced approach. We have to cooperate with them on dealing with Iran, for instance, or on dealing with the environmental issues, but where they have crossed the line, I think that we need to review our relationship.

RAY SUAREZ: You hear very, very different views on how much a president puts previous experience and previous training to work that first day they go to work in January of the New Year. We've had presidents with significant experience of the rest of the world, some with almost none. And each have faced foreign crisis. What is it that a president, when they finally have their hands on the control that first day has to really quickly ramp up to understand.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I've just written a book called "Memo to the President-elect," and I have a lot of very specific advice.

But one of the things that I think is so important is to be - a president who has confidence in his capability to put a - have a team that works together that is somebody who is confident enough to listen to new ideas and to make decisions based on a very careful understanding of the problems, and not somebody who is so sure that he knows everything that he doesn't even know what he doesn't know.

So, I think that a president that has gone through the campaign process in many ways having to answer many questions on everything, thinking about the difficulties of governing, is somebody that can put together the various aspects of his background.

But it's a hard job, which is why I am so pleased that Senator Obama has reached out to vice president ... to the next vice president, Joe Biden, that he's going to put together a team, that he is somebody - and I so admire Senator Obama's mind in terms of his judgment, his capability of integrating new information, of being wise and being calm. I think he's going to make a terrific president.

RAY SUAREZ: It hasn't always helped, has it, when someone with formidable experience of the world has taken the job? Sometimes things happen that you're not ready for.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, and you have to be ready for the unexpected. And that's one of the things I say in my book. I say whatever you plan for, something unexpected is going to happen. And therefore, this capability of marshalling information, of sorting through what is important and what is unimportant, of having a demeanor that allows you to be calm and rational about issues and not have knee-jerk reactions.

I've watched this - I've been in two administrations - in the Carter and Clinton administration - and it does come at you very, very fast. And what you have to do is sit there and think to yourself, what are the consequences? What are the unintended consequences of what I'm about to decide? And I think Barack Obama has that kind of a ranging mind and capability to analyze situations.

And so, I think that you don't want somebody who feels that he knows everything. I think that's where we have the most worrisome.

I've just been reading about Abraham Lincoln. And a lot of people thought he didn't have the right experience. But he had this really innate capability of assessing who he had around him, how to make decisions calmly, and how to be able to really deal with all the information that comes in. The problem for the president in the 21^st century is the amount of information that comes in.

RAY SUAREZ: Fareed Zakaria, whom I know you know, has said in his latest book that what's evolving now is a world that no longer needs the United States in the same way that it did in the decades after the second World War. Is America ready for that kind of a world?

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I think that - I'm not sure that I fully agree with the way he stated it. I think that the people that I deal with abroad say they want to see America's leadership. But they say America's leadership has been wanting. And they want a different kind of America, one that doesn't go telling everybody what to do all the time but one that understands that a partnership approach is the only way to deal with the huge problems, that respects the views of others, that the worst thing that would happen in the world is if the United States withdrew. If we just decided - well, it's impossible to do - but if we just decided that we didn't want anything to do with issues in the world, because ultimately, things that happen anywhere in the world do come home to America. And we have to be able to deal with it.

But we have to deal with it as partners. We need our partnership with Europe. We need to figure out how to have a relationship with China and India and Russia, very complicated ones. There's no one size fits all and it's a different kind of America  partnership. And I think the American public will understand that if it's properly explained.

RAY SUAREZ: Before I let you go, Madam Secretary, is it fun to be back in Denver, a place that you have some family history with and that you have followed over the years?

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Well, I love Denver. It's my hometown. And it's always very hospitable. It's beautiful. The weather's great. And when I was growing up here, one of the mottos of a local newspaper was, "It's a privilege to live in Colorado" and I can agree with that. And I'm especially thrilled because now my father had taught at the University of Denver. He was dean at the graduate school of international studies. And they've renamed the school. It's now the Josef Korbel School. So I'm very excited about that.

RAY SUAREZ: Great to talk to you.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: Very good to be with you, Ray.

RAY SUAREZ: And thanks to all of you who have sent us questions to ask on the Online NewsHour across the week. Please continue to do so. Join us again tomorrow. Thanks a lot.