President Bush's Second Term

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Colin Powell says goodbye to the State Department as Condoleezza Rice is approved by a Senate committee to be next in line. As President Bush prepares for his second inauguration in a cold and wintry Washington, there is anxiety overseas. In a BBC poll of 21,000 people in 21 countries, 58% said Bush's re-election made the world a more dangerous place. Only in Poland, India and the Philippines did those polled feel safer. With lukewarm approval ratings at home, what are the prospects for an ambitious domestic agenda? With public anxiety overseas, will there be allies for staying the course in Iraq or for new initiatives in spreading democracy and combating terror? We get the latest approval ratings at home and abroad, and talk with supporters and skeptics, including a former military historian who's currently studying presidential war leadership.

  • Making News: Colin Powell Says Goodbye as Condoleezza Rice Approved
    John Kerry joined Barbara Boxer in voting no, but 16 other Senate committee members approved the nomination of Condoleezza Rice to be America-s next Secretary of State. Steve Weisman, who is reporting the story for the New York Times, says that Rice will win confirmation despite the frustrations of many Democrats and Republicans, including Senator Richard Lugar.
  • Reporter's Notebook: It's Alive! Tiny Living Robots
    Novelist Michael Crichton is one of those who's fantasized about living nanomachines replicating themselves and turning life on Earth into "grey goo," but real scientists are actually building devices engineered at the scale of atoms. At UCLA, they've created tiny robots powered by living muscle, developed by growing rat cells on microscopic silicon chips. Carlo Montemagno, chair of UCLA's Bioengineering Department, is the man who's growing them.

Secretary Powell's farewell address

Opening remarks by Secretary of State-Designate Condoleezza Rice

Senator Boxer's opening statement at Rice's confirmation hearing

Senator Kerry on nomination of Secretary of State-designate Rice

President Bush

BBC's global poll slams President Bush's leadership

National Annenberg Election Survey on nation deeply divided over Iraq, Social Security

Continentti's article on Bush election victory, expectations for second term

Nathan Sharansky's The Case for Democracy

Space Daily article on muscle-powered robots

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney