Karen Hughes' Visit to Latin America

The president is sending Karen Hughes down to Latin America to improve the image of the U.S., which is extraordinarily negative. Such a visit is not necessarily bad, and has a long history (Eisenhower famously sent his brother Milton, who then a wrote a book about Latin America entitled, The Wine is Bitter). The serious problem, however, is that the trip is based on the idea that the U.S. is doing great things, but just not getting any credit.

According to Hughes: "The way she sees it, the Bush administration is doing plenty, but most Latin Americans just don't know about it."

According to Secretary Rice: ''in some ways we, I guess, don't toot our own horn.”

In other words, on this trip Hughes will not discuss any ways in which U.S. policy might better address the political realities in the region, or ask for Latin American opinions about how to counteract the negative image of the U.S. She will go and say, “We are doing great things, and we want more credit.”

It is very hard to imagine any positive reaction to such a message.