While campaigning in New Hampshire on January 8, Hillary Clinton riffed on Bush's now infamous remark in 2001 that he had looked into the eyes of Vladimir Putin and saw his soul. Her words, as reported in Reuters:
"Bush really premised so much of our foreign policy on his personal relationships with leaders, and I just don't think that's the way a great country engages in diplomacy," Clinton said to voters in Hampton, New Hampshire.
"This is the president that looked in the soul of Putin, and I could have told him, he was a KGB agent," Clinton said. "By definition he doesn't have a soul."
Clinton's comments... drew laughs from the crowd...
There you have it: Clinton mocks Bush by acting... just like him. Irresponsibly.
This story was carried widely throughout the former Soviet Union, initially through the Reuters and BBC Russian service wires, often with the headline:
Хиллари Клинтон: у Путина не может быть души по определению
Hillary Clinton: Putin by definition can't have a soul
The Russian-language blogosphere also leapt on the comment, which happened to coincide with John McCain's recent quip that he looked into Putin's soul and "saw three letters: K, G, and B." One blogger responded to McCain in this way:
Интересно какие у них буквы в глазах? наверное НЕФТЬ или ВОЙНА
Interesting -- what letters do they have in their eyes? Probably O-I-L or W-A-R
Vitaly Tretiakov, editor of Politicheskii klass (The Political Class) and former editor-in-chief of Izvestiia, arguably the most influential newspaper in Russia, reacted to Clinton's demonstration of "the way a great country engages in diplomacy" by writing:
Можно было бы подумать, что Клинтон просто насмотрелась голливудских фильмов, в которых душа есть , естественно, только у американских президентов и агентов ЦРУ, которые очень переживают, прежде чем замочить кого-нибудь в клозете.
Maybe Clinton has simply seen too many Hollywood movies in which, naturally, souls grace only American presidents and CIA agents, who really emote before dunking someone in the toilet.
To be fair, Hillary did not piss off everyone. Here is one upbeat Ukrainian blogger:
Россия окончательно потеряла расположение Америки. Украине не стоит повторять этой ошибки. Вперед, по пути демократии!
Russia has finally lost the sympathy of America. Ukraine will not repeat that mistake. Onward on the road to democracy!