While the collective undies are in a twist about 'BitterGate', Hillary Clinton is busy embarrassing a world leader over attendance at the Beijing Olympics.
Hillary Clinton recently called on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing this summer. Clinton cited violence in Tibet and China's relationship with Sudan and the genocide in Darfur:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
"The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for Presidential leadership," Clinton said in a written statement. "These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government."
Meanwhile, Clinton heaped praise on England's prime minister, Gordon Brown, for his decision to boycott the opening ceremonies, a decision that he had not actually made.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/...
Gordon Brown became an unintentional standard-bearer for pro-Tibet campaigners today after being wrongly praised by Hillary Clinton for boycotting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
The British media have treated the confirmation by No 10 yesterday of his plans not to attend the opening ceremony as an important foreign policy move, leading to reports around the world that he had snubbed China.
An exasperated Downing Street criticised the BBC and Channel 4 News for what it said was an inaccurate representation of Mr Brown’s longstanding decision to attend the closing ceremony and not the opening.
I guess their political media is as concerned about accuracy and context as ours is. One would assume that if Prime Minister Brown's decision to attend the closing and not the opening ceremonies was a reaction to China's human rights problems, it would have been announced as such to maximize the impact. One might also think that Hillary Clinton's extensive experience would prevent her from embarrassing world leaders, particularly on a topic as sensitive as the Beijing Olympics has quickly become.
Mrs Clinton jumped to the conclusion that he was taking a stand. "I wanted to commend Prime Minister Gordon Brown for agreeing not to go to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing," she said.
Downing Street said that Mr Brown publicly accepted an invitation from Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, to attend the Games when he went to China in January.
According to officials, he told Mr Wen that he would go to the closing ceremony as that would mark the handover to London for the 2012 Olympics. Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, will be at the opening ceremony.
Oh well, back to misunderstanding, misreading and misrepresenting Obama.