Embarrassing American Diplomacy

http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=14985653001

The above link is to the video of Hillary Clinton giving the symbolic "reset button" to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Clinton says that they tried to get the right Russian word for "reset," but they did not. This is embarrassing in itself. There are many Russians living in the United States, as well as Russian language scholars and students. With those resources available, how did they get it wrong? Granted, Russian is quite difficult as a language, as I am well aware, but how can you get a word wrong when you have an embassy and a consulate in Russia? Seriously, they could have sent someone to one of the Russian Universities, or even just onto the street to ask what the word for reset is. If that was not embarrassing enough, when Clinton is told that the word they put on the button was "overcharge," she makes a comment to the effect of "We won't let you do that to us, I promise." How arrogant is that? The whole idea was to thaw relations, not prove that Americans are arrogant. This whole incident is just embarrassing, and leads me to conclude that it is not surprising that people think that Americans are stupid. When we have leaders that can't get one word correct, and then make arrogant comments when they find out its wrong, it is no wonder there are negetive feelings towards the US. All I am saying is that if we are choosing as a country to repair the damage of the Bush administration, then we need to take a less arrogant approach, and more importantly, get the details right!