Madeleine Albright Visits SEPA

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made a few campaign stops in the Philadelphia suburbs today. At 3:00 she was at Bryn Mawr. Before that she spoke to a group in Bristol. I couldn't make the Bryn Mawr event but was able to get to the one in Bucks.

There was very little pre-event publicity; details were released today, as far as I know. Even so, the crowd exceeded expectations. There were between 150 and 200 people there, sitting on the floor in the aisles and along the walls, standing along the back of the room, and hovering out in the halls near the door.

It was billed as starting at 1:00, but Albright didn't begin speaking until a little after 1:30. State Rep. Tony Melio warmed up the audience with some jokes. State Treasurer Robin Weissmann gave a general introduction then introduced an organizer whose name I did not catch.

Albright is spry for her age and very smart. She was focused, sharp, and knew her stuff. She gave her priorities for the next president:

fight terror without creating more terrorists
control nuclear weapons
restore the good name of democracy
globalization (mitigate the worst parts)
global warming / energy policy / food prices

She said we have 2 hot wars. One in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The other in Iraq, which she considers possibly the worse disaster in American foreign policy, in part because of the unintended consequences.

On the current presidential race she said she has known Joe Biden for a long time and he is a really smart guy.

She was a Hillary Clinton supporter but says we have to unite behind Obama and Biden. This is not about gender but about agenda. It is not about plumbing but about what is in our heads.

After talking for about 15 minutes she took questions. In answering one she said she wants a president who is confident but not certain.

I had to leave at 2:00 and she was still taking questions so it is very possible something interesting happened after I left.

Albright was a really interesting speaker. I'll have to track down her autobiography.

Other observations: The audience was primarily made up of women in my age group (middle aged) with a smattering of young fry thrown in.