Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave an end-of-term interview this morning to Rita Braver of CBS Sunday Morning. There’s a lot to chew on given the far-reaching nature of the interview that covered the image of the US abroad, the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Sino-American relationship, North Korea and the Six-Party Talks, AIDS relief in Africa, the rise of authoritarianism in Russia and more. But early in the interview is a very telling exchange:

QUESTION: Looking at the big picture of what’s the whole foreign policy of this Administration – you come out of the academic tradition so I think it’s fair to ask, what kind of grade do you give yourself and this Administration on foreign policy?

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, I don’t know. It depends on the subject. I’m sure that there are some that deserve an A-plus and some that deserve a lot less. But what I think this Administration has done is, in the most complicated circumstances after September 11th, to put the country on a course where we have built a different foundation for a different kind of Middle East, where Saddam Hussein is out of power, where that will bring — where there’s an Iraq that is multi-ethnic and multi-confessional democracy and a friend of the United States, rather than an Iraq that is invading its neighbors and using weapons of mass destruction and seeking weapons of mass destruction. We’ve left a lot of good foundations.

QUESTION: You know, you say that, but the Pew Global Attitudes Project released a new report very recently. On the very first page it says, “The U.S. image abroad is suffering almost everywhere.” The most recent CBS News/New York Times poll shows that only 26 percent of Americans approve of the President’s foreign policy. It has to be more than just a perception problem.

SECRETARY RICE: No. Rita, first of all, it depends on where you’re talking about. In two of the most populous countries, China and India, the United States is not just well regarded for its policies, but well regarded. And –

QUESTION: This report says the only place the U.S. is really – you know, people are happy about the U.S. is in some of the southern African countries, but –

SECRETARY RICE: Well, that’s no small fact either, that in Africa, the policies of AIDS relief and so forth have been so regarded. But you know, this isn’t a popularity contest. I’m sorry, it isn’t. What the Administration is responsible to do is to make good choices about Americans’ interests and values in the long run, not for today’s headlines, but for history’s judgment.

And I am quite certain that when the final chapters are written and it’s clear that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq is gone in favor of an Iraq that is favorable to the future of the Middle East, when the history is written of a U.S.-China relationship that is better than it’s ever been, an India relationship that is deeper and better than it’s ever been, a relationship with Brazil and other countries of the left of Latin America better than it’s ever been, a relationship that has given an umbrella to anti-terrorist activities so that this country is not yet safe, but clearly much, much safer. When one looks at what we’ve been able to do in terms of changing the conversation in the Middle East about democracy and values, this Administration will be judged well, and I’ll wait for history’s judgment and not today’s headlines.

QUESTION: So you think that people are just short-sighted and they – that the pain that maybe we’re going through now because of what’s still going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, is causing people to say, look, you know, we just don’t think this Administration has done a very good job. I mean –

SECRETARY RICE: Rita, it’s not a popularity contest. It is to lay a foundation for where this will all come out. Do you really think that in 1947 or 1948 or 1949, anybody thought we were going to win the Cold War, flat out, that Germany would unify on Western terms, that the Soviet Union would collapse, that Eastern Europe would be fully integrated, and that this President would welcome nine countries into NATO that are former captive nations? I know that your business is to report today’s headlines, and I respect that, but my business is to lay a foundation for history’s judgment.

Well she was always a popular professor winning the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and she was an easy-grader at Stanford. Not sure if these two are correlated, but to be fair Professor Rice was a remarkable and engaging professor. It would be hard to describe her tenure as Secretary of State in such terms.

I won’t dispute that there have been diplomatic successes for the Bush Administration. There clearly have been. What we are doing in Mindanao is what we should be doing Afghanistan on a grander scale. Since coming to office, the Bush Administration tripled direct humanitarian and development aid to Africa and recently pushed to double it to nearly $9 billion. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a bright spot providing anti-retrovirals to 800,000. But here again, the Bush Administration’s insistence on abstinence programs have limited PEPFAR’s reach and effectiveness. Fully two-thirds of the money for the prevention of the sexual spread of HIV goes to abstinence programs. One critic called it “Save the Virgins.” Another success was the US-India Nuclear Agreement which It provides US assistance to India’s civilian nuclear energy program and expands US-India cooperation in energy and satellite technology. The agreement ends a 30 year ban on nuclear trade with India but critics suggest that the deal lacks “sufficient safeguards to prevent New Delhi from continuing to produce nuclear weapons.” It seems many of the Administration’s foreign policy successes warrant an incomplete grade. But it is the failures that are proving so costly. (more…)

If you’re coming to San Francisco, expect the Dungeness crab over on Fisherman’s Wharf to scarce and expensive. The impact is being felt from the boats through the restaurants. More from the New York Times:

An unusually weak Dungeness crab harvest is compounding the financial woes of West Coast fishermen who were already struggling with depressed consumer demand and the unprecedented collapse of the Pacific chinook salmon fishery.

Commercial fishermen in California, Oregon and Washington are struggling to stay afloat financially. They say the downturn could force fishermen who depend heavily on crab and salmon to leave the shrinking ranks of the region’s fishing fleet.

”With this crab season being slim at best, it’s going to be pretty hard to make it through to the next one,” said 58-year-old Duncan MacLean, a commercial fisherman since 1972. ”I would suspect there are going to be lots of people falling by the wayside.”

The Dungeness season that began in mid-November is shaping up to be one of the least productive in years. In Half Moon Bay, about 25 miles south of San Francisco, MacLean and other crabbers are not doing much fishing because the catch is so poor and prices offered by seafood processors are so low.

”It’s disappointing to everybody because you want to support your family,” said 45-year-old Steve Mills. ”Even though we’re not catching crab, the bills still pile up.”

Last spring, federal regulators for the first time canceled the West Coast’s commercial salmon season after a near-record low number of chinook returned to spawn in the rivers of California’s Central Valley. Next year’s season also could be called off to allow salmon populations to rebound.

Congress approved $100 million in federal disaster relief to help trollers and businesses that depend on West Coast salmon fishing. Many fishermen say they would be hurting even more without the aid, but they still had been counting on a robust Dungeness season.

Scientists attribute the weak crab harvest to increased fishing earlier this year, ocean conditions that disrupted the marine food chain and the natural cycle of crab populations, which tend to peak every seven to 10 years.

This season’s California catch is expected to fall below the 8 million pounds caught last year, which was down from 25 million pounds four years ago, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

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The new military President of Guinea Capitan Moussa Dadis Camara is vowing to revitalize the country’s mining sector. Mining provides 70% of the country’s export earnings. Guinea is rich in bauxite, iron, diamonds and uranium. More on mining in Guinea from Info Mine.

A report from Kenya’s NTV.

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On Saturday, the giant near century old British discount retailer Woolworths closed 200 of its stores.. The remaining 600 or so stores are expected to close in the next couple weeks as the retailer goes out of business.

A pictorial history of the legendary chain from the BBC. More on the demise of Woolworths from The Independent:

“They should have bailed it out, like the banks,” said Nazrene Zafar, pausing from snapping up cheap CDs and pick’n'mix sweets to take a family photo of her children in front of Woolworths’ dilapidated Stoke Newington store. “We’ve come to buy a few things, just so we can keep the Woolies labels as mementos. I bring my kids in here every day after school to buy pick’n'mix, so I know all the staff. It’s part of our community and I’ll miss it so much,” Ms Zafar said.

Similar scenes were being played out across the country yesterday, as 200 branches of the famous chain closed their doors for the last time, after administrators failed to find a buyer for the troubled company. Customers turned out in droves in cities such as Nottingham, London and Aberdeen to bid a fond farewell to the store – which has been a stalwart of the British high street for almost 100 years – while some were just happy to snap up last-minute bargains.

Although weeks of big price cuts have reduced stocks dramatically, leaving many stores with empty shelves, shops are still full of people, lured in by 90 per cent-off sales. “I’ve got £35 worth of stuff for less than a fiver,” said Steve Goodey, 45. “It’s sad to see it go but great to get things so cheap.”

Customers feeling particularly nostalgic could snap up the store’s fixtures and fittings, which were also on sale at knock-down prices. “It’s devastating really,” said one sales assistant, who did not wish to be named. “It’s all really emotional right now. The worst part is that we found out what was happening through customers and the TV; management didn’t even tell us first.”

The chain was taken over by administrators Deloitte last month, when the company’s debts mounted to £385m. Despite reports last week that Deloitte was in talks to save 125 stores, a plan that would have involved Woolworths executive Tony Page continuing to have some control of the company, it is now unlikely that any stores will be left open.

“It is still a possibility, but it is not very likely. The administrators are still reviewing interest in the brand, and there are people who are interested in the Woolworths trademark, which might be sold separately from the shops,” a Deloitte spokeswoman said.

Barring an eleventh-hour rescue, the chain’s remaining 600 stores will close their doors by 5 January, resulting in more than 27,000 people losing their jobs. The first Woolworths store opened in Liverpool in 1909. The high street store is the most high-profile casualty of the credit crunch which has seen Whittards of Chelsea, music store Zavvi and the homeware shop MFI all go into administration.

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