WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who identifies herself as "the mother-in-law of a person from Hawaii," is feminizing the metaphor of politics. Sure, she ably subbed for an injured President Bill Clinton throwing out the first ball of the baseball season (a Wall Street Journal editorial described her pitching form as "eerily correct"). Managing twins
However, as the first woman to head the Department of State, she has begun to put a different spin on the language of diplomacy.
"The fact that I knit," she says, "has brought me some very strange mail."
Speaking to the American Sciety of Newspaper Editors on Thursday, the woman who once described her predecessor, Warren Christopher, as "almost lifelike," bobbed and weaved during a follow-up question and answer session, leaving her audience looking forward to Friday's newspapers to read what news the press corps could glean to report.
But she stood right up to the plate and took a swing at a probing question fired by retired editor George Chaplin of Honolulu. Why, he asked, except when there is a crisis, does U.S. foreign policy remain largely Eurocentric despite Asia's growing economic and political dominance?
"Our relations with Asia are of equal importance with those with Europe," said Albright. The fact that she included Japan, Korea and China on her first-ever trip as secretary, she said, was meant to symbolically make that clear.
"As the mother of twins," Albright says, "I can assure you that I understand how to deal with equals."