ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 21, 1997 TAG: 9704210141
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-18 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Confident and charming, she is making herself known in small towns and wooing political heavyweights.
From the front row, Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski watched Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reach the lectern and grab it with both hands.
Squaring her padded shoulders, she eyed the U.S. foreign policy luminaries and told the plain-folk audience behind them: ``Some of you might think I should be daunted to stand before so many accomplished leaders. But in just 11 short weeks, I feel I have already trod where none of them dared to go.''
Pause. The conservative crowd shifted in the seats, wondering just who this person - This woman! This Democrat! - thinks she is.
With perfect comic timing, Albright explained: ``None of these distinguished gentlemen ever walked out in front of 50,000 screaming baseball fans wearing a Baltimore Orioles jacket and jewelry.'' And none, she said, ever kissed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman.
Albright, of course, has done both.
The audience of 250 people at the Gerald R. Ford Museum exploded in laughter and applause. It was an Albright moment - straight-ahead confidence tempered by charm, a combination that's earning raves.
As U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Albright mastered the Big Moment, slamming Iraq's Saddam Hussein, criticizing Cuba. Now, the first female secretary of state is conquering the Small Town, city by city in America.
Her message - I'm as good as the guys - was not lost here.
``Part of her popularity might be because she's a woman,'' said Jeremy Konyndyk, 19, a local Calvin College student. ``But she's tough. She's capable and hard-nosed. You just know that she's working hard for us.''
Said former President Ford: ``She has made an entrance in foreign policy the way Tiger Woods has made an entrance in golf.''
No one could argue. Albright and Masters champion Woods are among Time magazine's just-named 25 most influential Americans for 1997.
And Albright is America's favorite U.S. official, topping President Clinton in a Pew Research Center poll in April. She won approval of two-thirds of Americans - men and women, Republicans and Democrats, highly educated and not, rich and poor, white and black.
Can it last?
``It's early, and, of course, there are a significant number of crises that could hurt - the Middle East is so complicated, Bosnia could blow up,'' said Charles Jones, president of the American Political Science Association. ``But she has a style that clearly resonates with the public.
``She projects so much more commitment than the previous secretary of state [Warren Christopher], who was an able person. She projects dynamism and forcefulness.''
Albright's first official trip as secretary of state was to Texas, where she talked to college students and met former President Bush to jointly press for ratification of the chemical weapons treaty.
During a round-the-world courtesy tour to meet foreign leaders in February, she took time out to engage in a late-night - for her - Internet chat with grade school students back in the United States.
Last month, Albright hit North Carolina, where she met with more college students and wooed - and hugged and kissed - Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., the main foe of the chemical weapons treaty.
And last week, she came to Michigan, again with a dual agenda: to press with Republican Ford's help for bipartisan foreign policy and to answer questions from people about U.S. relations with other countries.
Albright, 59, calls it her ``mission'' to meet Americans. ``I'm going to be doing a lot more of this,'' she promised in North Carolina.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB