'Selling' America (Karen Hughes's Mideast trip gets unfair reviews.)

From OpinionJournal.com:

Karen Hughes is back from her first trip to the Middle East as Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, and the reviews have not been flattering. "Dangerous folly," declares Sidney Blumenthal, the former Clinton aide who knows something about propaganda (if not public diplomacy). "Hughes is helping bin Laden," adds Robert Pape of the University of Chicago.

Well, so much for liberal understatement. We, too, could pick nits with Ms. Hughes's performance, particularly on matters of style and presentation. But give her credit for this: At least she didn't try to "sell" the U.S. like a box of Wheaties. That was the concept of the first person to hold the job, Charlotte Beers, a Madison Avenue executive who thought improving America's image abroad was a matter of redefining our "brand." Ms. Beers didn't last two years in the job; her successor didn't last one.