Yesterdays WH press conference had a question on the departing Karen Hughes (h/t Matt Yglesias):
Q So in your mind, she has succeeded in her goal of outreach to the Arab world, based on those numbers that I just cited?

MS. PERINO: Look, I'm not going to comment or respond to a poll that you just read out. I don't know about those numbers, I don't know the questions that were asked; I think it's inappropriate. What I can tell you is that she has done amazing work. Let me give another example. She started a women's outreach effort with the Middle Eastern countries and started a breast cancer initiative. And just last week Mrs. Bush went and highlighted that initiative and went to four different countries in the Middle East, had a very successful trip in explaining that women have tools at their disposal when they find out that they have breast cancer, early detection and treatment. That is precisely what the President was hoping Karen Hughes would achieve, and she has.

The President was hoping she would raise awareness of breast cancer in Jordan? I don't know anything at all about the initiative, but I am sure it is doing good work raising awareness. That said, little forums that bring together a small group of elite women to talk about breast cancer or education or some other general issue doesn't really do anything to improve our image in the world. I mean maybe a few will notice the USAID logos on everything and think "wow, America paid for me to take a trip to the capital and have a nice lunch and meet some other folks... maybe their decisions to take over another country, spit on the Palestinians, and call declare war on Islam weren't so bad." But even if that happened, changing the minds of a few dozen elite women who were probably already sympathetic to the Western world doesn't actually have any real impact on our standing in the world. It is like saying fi you want to change the view of women in the US you should sponsor a book club for the DC lady's that lunch crowd.