With a quick step and determined look, Nicole Bauman presented a ticket to a security guard monitoring the Pugh Hall Ocora Room on Wednesday morning.
Bauman sought answers concerning the current presidential candidates and said former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright could offer some wisdom.
Bauman, a UF food and resource economics junior, was one of about 200 attendees of Albright's speech on the UF campus where she presented the main issues of her third and most recent book, "Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership."
Albright called the book a "user's guide to the White House."
She said the next president should read her book before he or she takes on "one of the most difficult presidencies any of us have seen."
"I don't think I've ever seen the world in such a mess," she said, "and that's a diplomatic term," she added with a laugh.
To make matters worse for voters, determining who should lead the U.S. out of its "mess" is unnecessarily tough because candidates have spent more time talking about each other than the issues at hand, Albright said.
The 44th president, she said, must re-establish the United States' good name lost through the military occupation of Iraq.
"You don't just decide one group of people is not capable of making decisions," Albright said. "Imposing democracy is an oxymoron."
Supporting democratic movement within a nation would be more beneficial to both parties than extended occupation, she said.
"I think Iraq will go down in history as the worst disaster in international relations," she said. "It is worse than Vietnam."
As a former United Nations ambassador, Albright said the new president needs to smooth out deals concerning international relations.
Her attitude as "an optimist who worries a lot" is one the new president should possess, she said.
But the book doesn't only offer advice for politicos. Albright said voters could use her book as a guide to determining which traits in a president are most important.
It was just what Bauman, who said she was hungry for political direction, was looking for.
Bauman was one of the first students in line to buy a copy of Albright's book and have it signed.
She said Albright helped her figure out the kind of candidate she'd like to support but wasn't any closer to determining who she might vote for of the current field.
"The president should be Madeleine Albright herself," Bauman said.
