...... sudden rise in the administration's stature happened shortly after the Russians administered what people then called "a bitch slap" to the U.S. Secretary of State, thus, by extension, the president and the United States.
As described in a "newspaper" -- a primitive information-distribution device of the time -- called the Washington Times:
It so happened that the president and some of his aides happened to view one of great works of literature of that era. Mr. Obama was heard muttering "nut up or shut up!" as he exited the screening room.All this was while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Moscow, trying to find out just how much help the Russians intend to give to the West. Mrs. Clinton could not even see Mr. Putin, the real head man; there was a conflict of schedules and he had to depart for Beijing. This was a remarkable snub, treating the secretary of state as if she were merely the representative of the PTA, lobbying for more vegetables in the school lunchroom. Maybe there really was a conflict; maybe Mr. Putin had scheduled a haircut at the only hour she was available.
The Russians succeeded in putting Mr. Obama and the Americans in their place. Nikolai Patrushev, the chief of the Presidential Security Council, manufactured an occasion while Mrs. Clinton was in Moscow to warn that Moscow reserves the right to make "a pre-emptive nuclear strike" against both small and large enemies.
The next day he called a press conference ....
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