Karen Hughes leaves, mission not accomplished

At least Karen Hughs has the decency to step down as did Colin Powell. Condi Rice should be next, as she is ineffective in any capacity other than that of a lap dog.

Osama bin Laden must go to bed every night marveling at how Cheney and Bush fell into his trap better than he could have ever expected.

Mission not Accomplished: Just like her boss; Dubya come November, I guess the need for her to take a good long shower finally set in!

Amazing - a woman who declares that people who march in Washingtom for "Free Choice" are equivlent to the criminals of 9/11. Then she is put in charge of mending relations between the US and the rest of the world. Is it really surprising that she failed?

Karen Hughes is a wonderful lady and devoted to President Bush. She and Karl Rove made W President.
She took every assignment seriously and America's PR in the Muslim world is complicated by the fact of Islamofascists Jihadists are Muslims.
Modern Muslims have made no effort to disown Jihad and suicide bombings along with just cutting pe
oples heads off.
Moderate Muslims have made a mistake and it's hard to say Islam is a religion of peace with all the talk about worldwide caliphate.
The comment that she had the decency to step down was a cheap shot aimed at W.
The liberal Democrats who post here have strange behavior and suffer from anti-Bush syndrome.
God Bless and Good Luck Karen you have done a first class job in the Arab world energized by fanatical religion extremists. Jery White, Springfield, IL

The last paragraph says it all, as so many have been saying for so long. There must be justice in Palestine first. The establishment of a state for Jews in Palestine was and is primarily a US responsibility.

Well, well, Karen hung on long enough to get a few nice welfare checks that should tide her over for a while. As a once high profile Bushite (Remember when Bush Condi & Laura Bush were the gals in Bush's brain trust) she actually saw through the shallowness of the Bush administration, gathered up her skirt, and scampered off back to Texas. Then magically she appeared to improve the image of America in the Muslim World. I'm sure with her perfect Arabic she must have been a big hit in the Mid East and over in Sow East Asia. How did she make out with Muslim Americans? Hmmmm. Actually what did she do to earn her check? Well that's the way the Republican brand of welfare works.

Karen Hughes was right in her unheeded advice...advice given to Bush-Cheney by so many. Anyone that doubts the connection between the failure to resolve the Israel-Palestine problem and radical Islam needs to read "The Looming Tower."

for jery white - 'Arab world energized by fanatical religion extremists' - hilarious. their 'energy' surely comes in good measure in response to the actions directed by this president. we created the monster.

Jerry White, were you on the UFO that Kuch saw? Jerry, 77 percent of the American population have anti-Bush syndrome. Don't you get it pal? He has a couple of cans missing from the ol six pack, all from being obsessed with Saddam, the wmd's, the war, and all his other blunders. Don't cry for ol Karen, she'll be just fine. She may be a sentence or two in the history books. But if she's not too late she may be able to get any mention of her omitted. Or, and this is big, Jerry, She may head back to Texas and write her own six volume book, titled "How I improved America's image in the Muslim World While on Welfare."

"This will take a number of years." Translation: It can't be done until Bush leaves office.

Outreach is really not too effective when your PR budget is about 0.1% of your war budget.

"Karen Hughes is a wonderful lady and devoted to President Bush. She and Karl Rove made W President."

LOLOLOL

Who's "deranged"??

Shill
Lackey
Spin Doctor
Sycophant

What am I missing??

Goodbye Karen. Don't let the gilded door bang your narrow ass on the way out.

Her first time working for pResident Doogie Howser, she failed at "burnishing Bush's image". Her second working for pResident Doogie Howser, she failed at "burnishing the image of the United States abroad".

She makes the perfect example of the failures that are the Dubya administration and the Republic Party.

Isn't it interesting how the rump of Bush support still talks as if they have majority support? Karen has finally realised she was flogging a dead horse. It was Cheney and Bush who shot the damn thing.

"God Bless and Good Luck Karen you have done a first class job in the Arab world energized by fanatical religion extremists." - Jerry White, Springfield, IL

Yes, Jerry, she truly was energized by fanatical religion extremists. (Sic.) Unfortunately, they were the ones we elected.

I have no doubt she did her best to do damage control, but wouldn't it have been better if there had been no damage to control? Maybe if Bush hadn't lied to the American people to get us into a war in a country unrelated to Bin Laden, we wouldn't have gone from being everyone's favorite country to a place viewed with distrust, even by countries with a deep structural allegiance to us.

Of course the mission was not accomplished. Ms. Hughes was bound to the Bush administration policy of recognizing zero nuance in the debate on terrorism. We should expect better from the hearts-and-minds czar.

I heard her in a BBC interview talking about the task of reaching out to Palestinian supporters of Hamas. When asked how she would reach out to Palestinians who view terrorism as defense, she categorically stated that terrorism was wrong. But how will the US and Palestinians come to any understanding if the Bush's image-abroad mastermind herself refuses to express understanding of the Palestinians point-of-view, the interviewer pressed? Hughes refused to qualify or clarify her position.

And that attitude is precisely why "mission not accomplished."

A sad reminder on everything that's been wrong for to long. A PR person is not going to change the world's image of America. Policy will trump spin every time.

Clearly Karen Hughes and the Bush administration have put the perception ahead of the actuality. It would be far more effective and considerably less costly if we simply treated others better. Smoke and mirrors are for magicians and priests. The arrogance and misguided attempts of the Bush clan continue to fail. Failure is the hallmark of this president both before and during his presidency. 900 million, double last years budget and 0 results. She would have been fired by a competent manager anywhere else.

Granted, trying to improve the image of the United States through public relations is a noble goal. However, the first rule of marketing is to understand your audience. Unfortunately, Ms. Hughes, who has a better understanding of the American psyche than world politics was ill cast in this role. She made some bureaucratic changes. She made some mistakes. She came home. It is unclear at this point as to whether she made a difference in this role. What is clear is that we are headed into an election year and election year politics is Ms. Hughes’ forte.

The image of US will improve once we resolve the Palestinian conflict - no question! I do not think muslims at large support bin-Laden; its just a blowback (read CIA factbook or Ron Paul's interview). The people at large in muslim nations are peace-loving as much as any other nations. Though we se riles of violence created by few keeping hostatges the rest.

The justice need to be served and we can leave in a world in peace!

jerry white or is it jery white?
listen, to date Bush has done little good for our nation outside of making the corporate world riches, rewarding friends & punishing people who disagree w/ him & the machine that is behind him
For a guy who once joked w/ a graduating class at Yale that even a C student like him from Yale could still be the president of the, once, great & young nation such as ours, W has managed to bait & hook many of us
to side w/ him, blindly, at first, then, regretfully later. Is it because of his inability to articulate, his confused looks when he
encounters issues beyond his grasps, all of which strikes a core w/ us for we
see ourselves in him, hence, we are willing to cut W some slacks. Mind you, these aren't minor errors that people like us make. These errors that W made, intentionally & unintentionally, are huge & the dire consequences to which we, as a nation, will continue to bear for a long time. Jerry, try to
read a little bit of history to enlighten your mind. All political leaders
have used false reasons/rationale to start a conflict elsewhere, mostly, w/ another entity, state, to divert peoples'
attention from what a bad job he is doing to govern his country's affairs. Bush,eventhough shallowed &
ignorant, is keen on stroking his ego & building a little legacy for himself. His father probably never thought much of him, hence, W was hell bent on destroying whatever good name old George managed to build. Remember?
there are only 2 couples of father & son who became presidents in our nation's history. The other couple was the Adams.
W could have taken this historical fact and made the best for his dad & himself, but, no, being the selfish, insecure, overly spoiled & demanding boy of a rather wealthy family, he chose to act on his own impulses. Remember? W was arrested for DUI in his forties & confessed that it was just a mid-life sort of minor...To prove to himself that he could be greater & to old George that he, too, could be a man of substance, W set out to wreck our nation's economical surpluses as well as our good name around the globe.
When will my fellow evangelical, ultra conservative Americans open their eyes to what this person has done to our nation? Are we becoming so isolated from EACH OTHER? Are we so different from each other that we truly can not hear/accept our differences? When did we quietly decide/agree w/ friends & associates that we can no longer see other fellow Americans as fellow countrymen, that we can not
coexist, work and share a common dream of building our nation as one truly great nation, a beacon of liberty & justice, a land of opportunities for all who want to better themselves & do well for their families & children.
A few words of the heart for Jerry & my fellow Americans who may not agree
with my principals/beliefs.

Kingpin No 1: The chief kingpin to all of our strife is campaign
financing. Of the many threats to our civilization the present method
of supporting candidates for office, is the worst. It is commonly
recognized to be bad, but what seems to be missed is that what has
become the pathway to what we now have; a "tyrannical plutocracy", has
spelled the end to what little democracy remains. For those who don't
know what a plutocracy is, it is the rich and powerful in absolute
control of the non-rich. We now have what has been described as "Yawn
America". It is inevitable that with the majority poorly educated, our
vaunted freedoms get abused by the greedy.

Momentarily, we are lulled by dead-end falsely secure jobs, inundeluting
media, essentially propagandistic and trivial news, and stories about
terrorists. (who, if we really think about it, are a threat only
against businesses). Ideally, campaign financing should be free to
qualified candidates. This removes the devilish bribery now prevalent
which puts the rich in control. Fatalistically, it probably can't
happen, but with citizens really owning the electronic conduits, they
need to insist that the licensees arrange cost-free means for the
candidates to vie with each other to become true representatives for the
public.

Unfortunately, we all prefer and aspire to becoming rich. This becomes
the carrot that forestalls efforts for reform and when we miss the brass
ring, we then lie subject to an unequal society squeezing the un-rich
with ever rising living costs leading to an ungracious old age.



"On her second tour, at the State Department, Hughes has worked at burnishing the image of the United States abroad.

Heckuva job, Hughesie!

Why do these American Presidents (Clinton and Bush)continue to send women (know matter how competent) to negoiate with countries that regard women as inferiors. Why does not common sense prevail. Does one really think we (civilized people) will change centuries of thinking in a few exchanges.

The biggest mistake here is assuming the rest of the world is dumb enough to believe the spins Karen Hughes comes-up with like the small minority of so-called Americans here would believe.

Karen Hughes proabably did a pretty good job - for an amateur with a background in Texas state politics.
Go back to the time when she told all those rich Saudi women about the joys of driving their own SUVs. All those privileged ladies liked things just the way they were; drivers, servants, etc.
Just another on-the-job training session for amateurs. There are lots of people in this country who actually know something about the Arab world. Maybe we could hire some of them someday... if they pass the religion test, aren't gay, have the right friends, etc.

she failed to run public diplomacy like a political campaign: so she had a nebulous target audience, a vague pitch, and no clear way for people to 'vote' their beliefs. it's kind of shocking, actually, that between her and her predecessor, charlotte beers, we've spent 6 years and billions of dollars in a failed effort to manipulate the perceptions of people around the world. you'd think we'd take a different approach. i plan on posting a long piece on this tomorrow at my blog, DIM BULB, if you're interested. dimbulb (at) typepad (dot) com.

I am so ashamed that she represented my gender so poorly. She doubled the budget which means she spent twice as much money. The best she could do is send our sports stars overseas to help? She is right in that it will take a number of years to repair the damage of our image. She had a losing battle that she couldn't win. We cannot start to heal until get a new president. She was way over her head and didn't know what she was doing. At least she had the dignity to step down. Bush has made a mess and a mockery of our nation. He is the bully in the playground and has instigated this whole thing.He fabricated the whole weapons of mass destruction and we bought it. He knew there wasn't any weapons of mass destruction. Iran does have weapons of mass destruction and now what? Do we go after them too? I am republican but anti-Bush. Regrettably so.

"God Bless and Good Luck Karen you have done a first class job in the Arab world energized by fanatical religion extremists. Jery White, Springfield, IL"

I guess the fact that you misspelled your own name is all we need to know.

Hey! Where's everybody's flag lapel pin!!?

DLA, don't take it to hard. Plenty of folks voted Bush for a 2nd term, knowing the lies and half truths being told. Our system is pretty resilient, and will recover from Bush's damage.

Regarding K Hughes, I'm sure she's in good company back in Texas. Good riddance.

Quitter. Cut-n-Runner.

There were plenty of WMD's...some people are so naive! The "leader" of Libya, Qadhafi, was a friend of Saddam Hussein. Qadhafi took the WMD's -- why else would he SAY that he "stopped making WMD's?! (And right after the war with Iraq began.) He had to SAY that to appease those who would try to take his power from him. Why some of you believe these Muslims who are part of a so-called religion that requires them to kill all "infidels" (all non-Muslims) is beyond me.

And why anyone would believe everything that comes from mass media - like the Wendy's chili scam, is also a mystery. Most people who use logic knew the second they heard it that the story was tabloid journalism. Nothing has to be proven, they just report what they want. That's their job - there must be stories for them to report, whether it's fact or fiction makes no difference.

Why the Bush admin. does not reveal the info about the WMD's going to Qadhafi, I do not know. I do know that truth is stranger than fiction.

The first time I saw this woman interviewed before she left the first time, really scared me. She had that ferocious look that you'd better not cross her or she will leave you as a pile of hamburger. She should be in the military.

"Karen Hughes is a wonderful lady and devoted to President Bush. She and Karl Rove made W President.
She took every assignment seriously and America's PR in the Muslim world is complicated by the fact of Islamofascists Jihadists are Muslims.
Modern Muslims have made no effort to disown Jihad and suicide bombings along with just cutting pe
oples heads off.
Moderate Muslims have made a mistake and it's hard to say Islam is a religion of peace with all the talk about worldwide caliphate.
The comment that she had the decency to step down was a cheap shot aimed at W.
The liberal Democrats who post here have strange behavior and suffer from anti-Bush syndrome.
God Bless and Good Luck Karen you have done a first class job in the Arab world energized by fanatical religion extremists." Jery White, Springfield, IL

Holy f**king christ you spewed a lot of ultra-conservative BS in that comment, perhaps you're suffering from an anti-thinking complex that has plagued so many Republicans these days. Do not ever associate the good men and women that believe in the Islamic faith with the evil "Islamofacists" or whatever you would like to call them. These are two completely different creatures. I've met many Muslims who are genuinely good people and completely disapprove of what is going on in the Middle East. There is little that they can do to stop this evil and frankly if anyone knew how to stop "Islamofacism" wouldn't we, the most powerful nation in the world, have already done something about it? Yeesh.

What a loss.
America's one unqualified original gift to the world is marketing.

Americans market everything and seem to believe everything should be marketed.

You can indeed shade or "spin" matters that are unclear or grey, but you still cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear, at least not in the world at large where people are not conditioned to respond as Americans are.

Karen Hughes had an impossible job.

You can't convince the world of America's better qualities when America is busy killing innocent people in defiance of all international law.

And Bush is pushing for more insane violence yet in Iran.

Don't know enough about her to make an opinion. I'm sure it was a very difficult and challenging job.