Clinton: First Slip of the Tongue then Major Gaffe
While abroad yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proved to be as capable of making gaffes as George W. Bush was.
Speaking in front of a group of Young Europeans in Brussels, the EU’s capital, Clinton told them never to “waste a good crisis” to reform society and do something about global warming.
The remark made clear what critics such as myself have been saying for weeks now; the economic crisis is an excuse for Democrats to push though all kinds of legislation aimed at reforming the nation’s economy.
Later, in Russia, Clinton presented her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov with a red ‘reset’ button. The word ‘reset’ was written on top of the button, or so Clinton thought. “We worked hard at getting the right Russian word,” Clinton said, “do you think we got it?”
“You got it wrong,” Lavrov answered explaining that the word used means “overcharge” not “reset.” Both laughed it off publicly – Lavrov even reminded Clinton of her staff’s mistake twice during the press conference after their meeting behind closed doors – but Clinton’s staff was logically angry with itself for making such a silly mistake at such an important time.
It’s interesting that Clinton and Obama agreed on the “reset” button – Russia is an enemy with imperialist tendencies. Bush understood this full well, which was logical considering the fact that Condoleezza Rice was his secretary of state. Rice, of course, is a Russia expert. She understands Russian mentality, culture, and politics. Obama et al. clearly do not.
So they chose the “reset” button in quite a clear negative reference to Bush. This is interesting because American governments usually do not go around insulting and making fun of their predecessors, no matter how popular or unpopular they were. Obama and Clinton have broken with that tradition; if you ask me, it’s a sign of a complete lack of class.
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I think it’s especially strange that the button incident happened on the same day that British newspapers are expressing outrage about Obama’s gifts to Gordon Brown. Just the logistics of how these things can happen despite the best efforts of entire protocol offices boggles the mind. I blogged about it at http://www.thehegemonist.com/2009/03/diplomatic-gifting.html
The Clinton administration has grown on me to some extent in hindsight (I suppose partly because I was quite disappointed in the Bush administration over time.)
But then stuff like this brings back memories of why I really had disdain for the Clinton administration. At times like this, I’m reminded of the feeling that a bunch of teenagers were at the helm, with childish actions and amateurish policy. I had higher hopes from Hillary Clinton- who also has grown on me and had seemed like she’d matured into a stateswoman. Oh well, there goes another hope dashed.
Christine thats exactly how i feel
I wonder (assuming they could get the translation correct) who thought giving the Russians a big “red button” was good idea? I guess we should be thankful it didn’t translate into “launch”
it is amateur hour in Washington.
Wasn’t Rice fluent in Russian?