Brendan Miniter: The first lady never expected to be spending so much time on foreign affairs
... Mrs. Bush has done what few others in the administration have managed to do over the past six years: She's remained very popular with the American people. She draws crowds at events; her approval ratings have been consistently high, hitting 85% at one point, the highest ever for a first lady. With her natural grace and wit, she has been described as "the most popular Republican in the country."
In our conversation Mrs. Bush laments that "it's too bad" that politics can be so barbarous because that can discourage good people from running for office. Then she adds with a laugh, "Although, I will say that it hasn't discouraged a whole lot of people who are running for president."
Mrs. Bush is now increasingly in the spotlight and spending her political capital on the president's foreign-policy initiatives outside the Middle East. She has made 14 solo foreign trips as first lady, nine of them after Mr. Bush's second inaugural address, outlining his freedom agenda. She's also visited Afghanistan promoting women's rights since the U.S. liberated that nation from the Taliban in 2001.
Mrs. Bush has also taken a lead in speaking out for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, a democracy advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner in Burma who won elections in 1990, but who has been kept under house arrest by a military junta. Mrs. Bush has made Burma a priority in part because the military junta has a budding relationship with another repressive Asian regime, North Korea.
The first lady doesn't hesitate to criticize China for trade that is keeping the Burmese regime in business. "China does have a huge amount of influence over Burma," she says. "They share a border, for one thing. But also, they . . . use the natural resources out of Burma," and in the end "they prop up a government that--a failed state, really, is what they're propping up, just like in the Sudan." Mrs. Bush adds that "right now, after cooperating with China in the six-party talks with North Korea, and with the Chinese Olympics coming up, I think this is a really good time for activists and advocates for Burma and the Sudan and other countries to put pressure on China."...
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In our conversation Mrs. Bush laments that "it's too bad" that politics can be so barbarous because that can discourage good people from running for office. Then she adds with a laugh, "Although, I will say that it hasn't discouraged a whole lot of people who are running for president."
Mrs. Bush is now increasingly in the spotlight and spending her political capital on the president's foreign-policy initiatives outside the Middle East. She has made 14 solo foreign trips as first lady, nine of them after Mr. Bush's second inaugural address, outlining his freedom agenda. She's also visited Afghanistan promoting women's rights since the U.S. liberated that nation from the Taliban in 2001.
Mrs. Bush has also taken a lead in speaking out for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, a democracy advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner in Burma who won elections in 1990, but who has been kept under house arrest by a military junta. Mrs. Bush has made Burma a priority in part because the military junta has a budding relationship with another repressive Asian regime, North Korea.
The first lady doesn't hesitate to criticize China for trade that is keeping the Burmese regime in business. "China does have a huge amount of influence over Burma," she says. "They share a border, for one thing. But also, they . . . use the natural resources out of Burma," and in the end "they prop up a government that--a failed state, really, is what they're propping up, just like in the Sudan." Mrs. Bush adds that "right now, after cooperating with China in the six-party talks with North Korea, and with the Chinese Olympics coming up, I think this is a really good time for activists and advocates for Burma and the Sudan and other countries to put pressure on China."...