CHIEF DIPLOMAT—Condoleezza Rice, 66th U.S. secretary of state, speaks July 14 at the Reagan Library. Rice delivered a lecture to a packed house of more than 1,000 people, the largest audience in the history of the library’s speaker series, officials said. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke of returning to core Republican values earlier this month at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.

A record-breaking crowd from around the state paid $75 for dinner and to hear the 66th secretary of state speak on July 14.

Rice, 54, entered the room with former First Lady Nancy Reagan to a standing ovation from some 1,050 people, including Sue and Gary Russello of Northern California.

“She has an amazing history,” Sue Russello said.

Her husband, Gary, said, “Condoleezza will be president one day.”

During Rice’s introduction, a library official said she’d drawn the largest audience in the history of the speaker series.

Rice served as the country’s chief diplomat from 2005 to 2009 under then President George W. Bush. Before that, she was assistant to the national security adviser.

An educator, Rice joined the Stanford University faculty in 1981. As a political science professor, she received awards for excellence in teaching in 1984 and 1993. Rice is an author and co-author of several books on the Soviet Union and served as the university’s provost for six years.

Rice said that when she was asked to join the Bush administration she was “enamored” not with the president’s foreign policy, but with his stand in education against “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Rice said her journey from growing up in the segregated South to being a White House official uniquely positioned her to speak about the advantages of democracy to foreign countries.

America, Rice said, has been criticized as being too idealistic and impractical in its belief that democracy could take hold in other countries.

Referring to Ronald Reagan’s statement that America must remain freedom’s staunchest defender, Rice said democracy is “institutionalized freedom.”

“You don’t have to impose democracy; you have to impose tyranny,” Rice said.

Authoritarian capitalism such as is practiced in China has little chance of longterm success because the people have no ethnic rights, she said.

In democracy, “if you don’t like those governing you, you can throw the bums out,” she said.

Rice admitted that countries starting down the road of democracy will experience setbacks in the beginning.

“Sometimes the bad guys win” elections, she said.

But it’s important to continue the fight for democracy and not lose heart, because events that once seemed impossible can later appear inevitable, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, Rice said.

She said America is the most generous, freest country on earth and called for Americans to make a reality the “national myth” that it doesn’t matter where one comes from but what one makes of oneself.

Rice spoke about her grandfather’s experience. Calling him her hero, Rice said he put himself through college by selling cotton the first year. He ran out of cotton the second year and was told he’d have to leave if he couldn’t pay the tuition. Pointing to a few other students, Rice’s grandfather asked how they were paying for college.

“They have a scholarship to become a Presbyterian minister, and you can have one, too, if you’re interested,” was the reply. Her grandfather said that’s exactly what he wanted to be, Rice told the audience, and her family has been college-educated Presbyterians ever since.

Rice said Americans should have an optimistic outlook for the future—that’s what led to the founding of this country, to the daughter of a man denied the right to vote becoming secretary of state, and it’s what put an African American president in the White House.

During the unscreened question-and-answer period, a man asked Rice why her predecessor, Colin Powell, would support someone like President Obama, who wants to lead the country in the same direction that “Lenin led the Russians.”

Rice said Powell is a friend who supports the same principles she spoke about during her talk.

She added that Republican Party members will disagree but must stay focused on the conservative movement and the party’s core values, such as business being the engine of growth and less taxation for Americans.

Asked about the depressed financial state of newspapers in this country, Rice said they’re necessary in a democracy and, unlike other forms of media, add depth to reported events.

“I worry about the demise of newspapers,” she said.

When asked twice her opinion of Obama, Rice declined to criticize the new administration but instead spoke about the progress of democratic elections in the Middle East.

Michael Pounds of Lake Elsinore said he was impressed.

“I loved it; she’s funnier than I thought,” said Pounds, who drove three hours to hear Rice speak. “She said she thinks (George) Marshall was the best secretary of state. I think she is.”