She thought she was being clever. She thought she was being funny. What she ended up being was the butt of jokes from the Dneiper to the Don.

Our Secretary of State (one of Obama's "Team of Rivals") goofed - big time. Hillary Clinton thought it would be hysterically funny if she presented the Russians on her visit with a "Reset Button" to denote a new era in American-Russian relations. The Whiz Kids at the State Department came up with such a button with the word (they thought) "reset" in Russian inked on top.

Oooops!

At their meeting in Geneva last week, Clinton gave Lavrov what was supposed to be a "re-set button" telling the Russian people that we were "re-setting" our relationship. Unfortunately for our expert at foreign relations, the word on the button's casing did not say "re-set" in Russian. It said "overcharged" or "overload." So, if the Russian Minister were to push that button we'd be "overloading" our relations. NOT the message that we wanted to send, was it?

Now, it's all well and good to have some fun with this idiot gaffe by Clinton's State Department. Believe me, I am no fan of Foggy Bottom no matter who sits in the Oval Office. But this incident also shows another aspect of this uncivil administration.

Obama is not moving forward into his bright new future. He is wallowing still in what he thinks are the evil Bush years. Neither he nor anyone else in his administration spare the least bit of effort to forget about the last president. At every opportunity you can find them digging at Bush. This still born "re-set button" idea was just another aspect of that.

This is so stupid that it would easily fit into one of those old Buster Keaton silent films. Poor Buster was always doing stuff where the joke ended up being on him. I'm sure Hillary gets the same feeling.

Richard Baehr writes"The Russians must be tickled pink with what team they will be dealing with for the next four years."

And so continues a saga on two tracks; 1) the incompetence of the Obama administration's foreign policy; and 2) the failure of the media to cover it. 

Maybe this is exactly what we need - more comedy in our relations with other countries. Except we end up being the butt of the jokes.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky