For me the defining moment came when Russert asked Clinton for the SECOND time, who is the next president of Russia, and she fumbled with the pronunciation and then said "Whatever!" Having lived 20 years in Europe, I cringed. She had displayed to the rest of the world how provincial and uninformed she is, and I bet that this display of ignorance and arrogance is now being replayed throughout Europe and Russia, reinforcing all of their prejudices against us, giving the lie to her claims to be qualified from day one to lead this country. If she realized that Russia is still the 2nd most powerful country in the world, she would know exactly who Medvedev (Medvyedyef) is. She hasn't been doing her homework. Oh well, after Tuesday it will be irrelevant anyway.

Damn...and she practiced the pronunciation all day. lol

"She had displayed to the rest of the world how provincial and uninformed she is"

Or perhaps simply flustered. Neither you nor I nor anyone posting here has ever been subject to the kind of exhausting, endless demands of such a thing as this campaign, and every one of us misspeaks every day.

Far more revealing than Senator Clinton's bobble of the name is your assumption that the only explanation for it is that she is "provincial and uninformed" and that it was a display of "ignorance and arrogance." The perpetual victim-state of Europe ("Americans don't understand/respect/know/care about us at all/enough/very much/as much as we think they should") turns what might have been nothing more than a slip of the tongue into a highly-charged Rohrshach-test result that says a lot more about you than it does the Senator.

I think it was the "whatever"...she could have just apologized for her mispronunciation. My friends in both France and Italy are very apologetic when mispronouncing English words. It makes them look gracious.

I didn't say I thought she handled it especially well.

I think that question was lame, personally, and I don't think it matters at all.

Yes. Her saying "whatever" was discouraging. And if I was one of those people for whom words are symbolic, it might suggest she was not as unflappable as they say.

" If she realized that Russia is still the 2nd most powerful country in the world"

This is false. The most powerful nations are these

1. USA

2. China

3. Japan

4. India

5. Germany

6. UK

7. Russia

Germany and UK are not so much more powerful that they could kick Russia's stupid drunk asses, but India or Japan could, provided Russia doesn't go running to it's mommy (China).

Europe is so lame. I'm going to laugh so hard when the Muslims re-enact what the Visigoths did to Rome.

No Hillary fan I, but honestly, the Europeans are always going to find an excuse to look down their noses at us, regardless of who the President is. Even when we have had to save them from themselves over the past century, first from the Kaiser, then crazy Adolph and finally Uncle Joe and the rest of his commie decendents.

I have lived in Europe and have relatives there, but I simply refuse to make what Europe thinks, a priority when deciding what is best for America. Believe me, they don't ask What will America think, when choosing their leaders.