Condoleezza Rice, who monitored global hotspots as U.S. Secretary of State, told a Charlotte audience Tuesday that the greatest challenge to American supremacy is closer to home.
"The challenge is not China or Brazil or India, certainly not Europe," she said. "The challenge is the United States of America gone bad."
Rice made the point during a wide-ranging speech at the Belk Theater sponsored by the Learning Society of Queens University. More than 2,000 people filled the hall.
Rice, 56, recounted anecdotes from her years at the state department and as President George W. Bush's national security adviser.
She made no mention of the conflicts with former Vice President Dick Cheney that she recounts in a new 734-page memoir, "No Higher Honor," to be released Nov. 1. Nor did she mention what she describes in the book as the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's "eerie fascination with me."
In warning of an America "gone bad," Rice cited examples of the threats she sees from a country no longer living up to its values, and "the idea that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things."
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