Another Foreign Policy Gaffe

Obama Admin gaffe machine strikes again:

An official statement from the US foreign policy chief paid tribute to the "Queen’s life and legacy,” despite the fact that the Monarch does not celebrate her official birthday until next weekend.

The diplomatic faux pas, sent on behalf of President Barack Obama and the American people on Friday, also celebrated the "special relationship" between the British and US governments.

[...]

A spokesman for Mrs Clinton attemped to make light of the gaffe.

"We were a week early," Philip Crowley joked to reporters in Washington.

"As always, it is better to give a greeting a week early than a week late."

And still better to get the timing right, dingus.

The Obama Administration's foreign policy has been fundamentally unserious from the very beginning. Actually, the amateur mistakes go back even to the campaign when, for example, Obama made a gaffe-prone victory lap through Europe. It continued the next month when his thoughtless initial statement on Russia's invasion of Georgia had to be "corrected" to parrot McCain's.

Once installed in the White House, Obama's crack diplomatic team managed an embarrassing first two months with insulting treatment of Gordon Brown and his wife, followed a month later by an insulting gift to the Queen along with a protocol breach by Michelle Obama for good measure.

Clinton's own start wasn't great either, as she encouraged the Russians to "overcharge" our diplomatic relationship. By March, the list of foreign policy gaffes included:

1. Canada: NAFTA fiasco.
2. Poland: missile shield "misunderstanding".
3. UK: Churchill bust return.
4. Russia: "overcharge" button.
5. UK: insulting the Browns, the Queen.
6. France: not realizing that Chirac has been out of power for two years.
7. Brazil: Misspelling the Brazilian president's name.
8. Mexico: NAFTA
9. India: Thinking Kashmir is in Poh-kee-stan.

A catalog of diplomatic faux pas followed over the summer. Between then and now, the gaffes have been too numerous to count (though we try our best to document them all here at the HQ).

Obama and his amateurish administration are trying to learn on the job and failing miserably at it.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 06:05 PM

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