Charlotte Beers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, came to the job after her success in marketing Uncle Ben's rice. Now she's in charge of a news and music program in the Middle East called Radio Sawa ("Radio Together" in English). Its sponsor's product is Bush's foreign policy.

Today's New York Times ran this reaction from Arab marketing expert Tony Sabbagh: "You cannot create a product out of an image. You can only promote a product if you have one."

Or as Lyndon Johnson used to put it, even more briefly: "You can't shine shit."