On March 6th 2009 then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton famously used a prop, “a reset button“, to announce a new approach toward relationships between the United States and Russia.   Clinton presented the button to her counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In an attempt to break the ice with Lavrov, Clinton handed him a makeshift “reset” button wrapped in a ribbon at the start of their meeting. Laughing, she told the foreign minister that “we want to reset our relationship” and “we will do it together.”

Lavrov promised to keep the button on his desk, but pointed out that the Russian word written on it, “peregruzka,” meant “overload” — not “reset.”  (link)

At the time many people forewarned the Obama Administration was taking a very naïve position if they collectively thought the Russians would in any way align with U.S. interests.

The reasoning for the caution was simple. For two decades the general Russian political class had felt “the West” in a general sense, and the U.S. in particular, had been dancing in the end zone about the collapse of the Soviet Union. Regardless of whether or not the Obama administration wanted to admit there was a resentment in place, it factually existed.

Now, as if it could get worse, consider the response today from Hillary’s replacement, John Kerry, when asked about the prudence within the original Obama/Clinton position.

WASHINGTON DC – NBC’s David Gregory pressed Secretary of State John Kerry on the status of the U.S.-Russia “reset” during an interview Sunday on Meet the Press.

“Well, I don’t know what you mean by the reset,” Kerry oddly responded.

The question was asked as Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) among others have argued U.S.-Russia relations are deteriorating and have asked the administration to publicly acknowledge this.

“The Obama administration must publicly acknowledge that its “reset” with Russia is dead. The president must now accept that the only way to deal with tyrants like Vladimir Putin is with a clear understanding that they can’t be trusted and that only decisive action will deter their provocative moves,” Rubio wrote in Politico Magazine.

When pressed further by Gregory, Kerry weakly responded, “We’ve entered into a different phase with Russia. I don’t think this is a moment to be proclaiming one thing or the other.”

The full exchange is available below:

DAVID GREGORY: Before I get to my final question on Israel with a big meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, coming to meet with President Obama, Marco Rubio is on this program in just a few minutes saying it’s time for the administration to publicly acknowledge that the reset with Russia is dead. Do you acknowledge that?

JOHN KERRY: Well, I don’t know what you mean by the reset.

GREGORY: The reset in relations that this administration called for.

KERRY: I know, but long ago, we’ve entered into a different phase with Russia. I don’t think this is a moment to be proclaiming one thing or the other. We’ve had difficulties with Russia with respect to certain issues, and even as we have, we’ve managed to do the Start treaty. They’ve cooperated on Afghanistan, they’ve cooperated on Iran. So, it’s not a zero-sum, dead-alive. It’s a question of differences, very profound differences on certain issues and certain approaches, and we’ve made those very clear over the course of the last months. (read more)

What exactly has Hillary Clinton accomplished as Secretary of State ?

After a six month stint in 2009 of global travel, a generally  touchy feely apology tour, with reset buttons and photo-ops – the rest of the 09′, 10′ year was spent travelling back to the same countries apologizing for the embarrassment within the wiki-leaks scandal.

Clinton spent almost all of 2010 going from country to country telling leaders we were sorry for making fun of them behind the scenes – and trying to reassure them the now outed private positions were wrong, and the more appropriate public positions were correct.

Followed up by a completely botched disconnect with Egypt where Hillary was requesting regime change and Obama was supporting President Mubarak.

Eventually they both decided to support the Muslim Brotherhood, and Morsi, who instituted a devastating process of Sharia Compliant governance, disbanded the courts and judges and opened the jails.

That didn’t work out too well did it ?

Not to mention supporting a group of “rebels” in Libya we did not know, who turned out to be al-Qaeda affiliates – and eventually led to our own Ambassador’s assassination.   Meanwhile Iran jumps with joy and is even closer than ever to nuclear weapons.

What exactly did Hillary accomplish ? …and moving beyond Hillary what exactly has President Obama accomplished that could even remotely be perceived as positive ?