Press that Reset Button, Mr. Gorbachev

Lost in a fawning USA mainstream media the fact that President Barack Obama celebrated 2009’s July 4th long weekend by flying off to Moscow. A formal reception line awaited Czar Obama, his family and servants on the tarmac this morning. The first official ceremony saw the American president walking slowly behind three high-stepping Russian soldiers before he bent over to straighten the ribbon of a wreath laid before the eternal flame at Russia’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Day One of the Moscow mission included a visit with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev at the Kremlin, where Obama pronounced: “The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences.”

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But the main event is Tuesday’s breakfast with Russia’s real president Vladimir Putin and the man who was only physically but never far away in spirit from the Politburo, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, official “first tenant” of San Francisco’s Presidio. In Russia, Gorbachev is the equal of Putin. In America he’s the side kick of UN Poster boy, Canadian Maurice Strong, with whom he wrote the Earth Charter, which both boast replaces the Ten Commandments of Moses, and with George Soros, part of the trio thought to be behind the orchestrated U.S. economic meltdown. Even in the face of American generosity, few have openly criticized the United States of American than Mikhail Gorbachev. Happy Independence Day Weekend, America! Tomorrow’s visit with Gorbachev and Putin flushes the Gorbachev-Obama real relationship out into the open. It was only last March when the newly-elected president ran unexpectedly into the former Soviet leader--at the White House. It was White House spokesman Robert Gibbs who played down the meeting as an impromptu run-in on Obama’s part. “The president tends to roam around the larger (White) House and sometimes walks into meetings that weren’t previously on his schedule,” Gibbs told inquiring reporters. So, according to Gibbs, the two power houses weren’t really attending a meeting because the president just happened to run into Gorbachev. Gibbs said that Vice President Joe Biden and Gorbachev had been discussing ways of reducing their countries’ respective nuclear arsenals, an issue Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev were to talk about at the G20 summit on April 2 and again tomorrow. The truth is that Gorbachev, whose soft landing in the U.S. after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been talking about reducing America’s nuclear arsenal ever since arriving on American soil. Nothing’s changed other than Russia ganged up last April with China trying to rid the world of the greenback. The Kremlin, which has persistently criticized the dollars status as the dominant global reserve, “has been calling for the creation of a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions as part of a reform of the global financial system.” (The Moscow Times.com, March 17, 2009). In Moscow today the Obama administration is looking for Russia’s cooperation on dealing with challenges, such as financial crisis, non-proliferation, climate change and terrorism. “The Obama administration has vowed to “press the reset button” with Moscow through more bilateral strategic cooperation and conversation.” (news. xinhuanet.com). When it comes to Russia, like Hillary Clinton, Obama could be “pressing the reset button” in all the wrong places. It’s 21 years since President Ronald Reagan demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall!” History will record that the “reset button” was pressed on the July 4th weekend, 2009.

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