WELL, AT LEAST SHE MENTIONS HUMAN RIGHTS - AT 9:01 A.M. ET:  After having been rebuffed by Russian leaders on Iran, Hillary Clinton fell back to Plan B, talking to kids about human rights and giving an Obama-style apology.  From The New York Times:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Russia on Wednesday to uphold human rights, voicing concern at recent attacks on activists and reporters willing to challenge the Kremlin.

On the second day of her Moscow visit, at the end of a European tour, Clinton told an audience of students that Russia must defend freedom.

"People must be free to take unpopular positions, disagree with conventional wisdom, know they are safe to peacefully challenge accepted practice and authority," she said during a question and answer session at Moscow State University.

(Gee, I wonder if Obama agrees with that.)

When you see the phrase "an audience of students," you know it's boilerplate.  In liberal circles there's a certain mystique about "an audience of students."  They're safe, they're generally to the left, they don't do much.

You can be sure that Clinton didn't give that lecture to the people in power.

And here comes the musical tribute to Barack Obama:

"We have people in our government and you have people in your government who are still living in the past," Clinton said.

"They do not believe that the United States and Russia can cooperate to this extent. They do not trust each other. And we have to prove them wrong. That is our goal. Our goal is to be as cooperative as we can."

Oh, please.  People living in the past?  In the Obama government?  Who are these people?  The only past they're living in is the 1960s.

So she wants to be "as cooperative as we can."  That's nice.  I'm sure the residents of the Kremlin are already looking around for concessions they can make in response to our niceness.  Maybe some extra caviar at Hillary's next Moscow lunch. 

I prefer Reagan's "trust but verify." 

We're making no significant headway with the Russians, or, for that matter, with the Iranians, North Koreans and Venezuelans.  But I guess it's living in the past to say so.

October 14, 2009