On Foreign Policy Faux Pas
There are more important things to worry about,
but may we have just a moment of sympathy
for the poor State Department employee
who came up with the idea of the gag gift
that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented to
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in Moscow?
It was to be a play on Vice President Joe Biden's remark
that it was "time to press the reset button on Russian-American relations."
So, Mrs. Clinton presented the foreign minister
with a little box with a button on it and a sign
that said "Reset" in Russian ¡­ or at least that's
what the Americans thought it said.
"I hope we got the right word," Mrs. Clinton beamed.
"No, you got it wrong," the minister replied.
"You got the word that means 'overcharged.'"
Oops!
Oh well, no real harm done.
But I can't help wondering what happened to that hapless soul
who caused the boss to lay an egg.
If he or she was in Mrs. Clinton's traveling party,
it must have been a long plane ride home.
If it is any consolation, I have seen a lot worse.
I was standing on an airport runway in Warsaw
when then-President Jimmy Carter
told a Polish crowd he was looking forward to getting to know them.
Surprisingly, the crowd let out a horrified "...uuuhhh" ¨C
and no wonder, when we found out why.
Somehow, the President's own translator mangled his words,
and in Polish the message came out that Mr. Carter
was eager to know the crowd in a Biblical sense!
These things happen.