Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wore a wide grin as she kicked off her morning yesterday at Palo Alto’s Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs. After touring the facilities, Rice and Australian Foreign Minister Alex Downer enthusiastically championed the importance of technological developments in the global market.

“I think the most important thing we’ve had a chance to do is to remember how important the innovation and entrepreneurship are to global competitiveness,” Rice said, “particularly in the United States.”

Deviating from her discussion about her tour of the HP lab, Rice touched on the raging civil conflict in Lebanon after being peppered by questions from the press.

“The Lebanese government is very much trying to do the right thing here, to protect its population against the extremists who enforce discord and instability there,” she said. “I think the world is speaking out in favor of the Lebanese government.”

“I was in touch with people back in Washington about it just a little bit ago, and I certainly hope that the Lebanese government will be able to deal with these extremists,” she added. “It’s just another example of extremists in the Middle East who are trying to destabilize democratic governments.”

Mark Hurd, HP’s CEO, also talked about the company’s history and its long-standing relationship with Stanford. HP was founded in 1939 by Stanford graduates Bill Hewlett ‘34 and David Packard ‘34.

“I hear the endowment of Stanford University and its annual revenue, and by Australian standards, it’s staggering,” Downer said. “Very much the core of [HP’s success] is a very heavy investment in education.”

“In our country, we’re putting more and more emphasis on that,” he added. “We’re setting up a massive national endowment for the universities, and we’ll be building on that in the years ahead.”

Rice and Downer followed the visit with a luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel in East Palo Alto, dining with TechNet officials and taking a drive in a Tesla Roadster, a fully electric sports car. Rice spent the afternoon with schoolchildren at the James Flood School’s Center for a New Generation in Menlo Park. Rice and her late father founded the center 16 years ago.