"Oceania was Always at War with Eurasia" of the Day

Remember how our new, Blue-state intellectual leadership would end the supposed foreign policy gaffes of those unsophisticated Republican cretins? Well Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on a diplomatic mission to Mexico last week, where she "made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers 'on behalf of the American people.'" So far, so good. But wait, there's more:

1. Amateur hour: Hillary's next step highlighted the new Secretary's cultural sensitivity:

   Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.
   
   
   source: The Anchoress
   
   After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked "who painted it?" to which Msgr. Monroy responded "God!"

   Spanish language video here.
   
   Our Secretary of State apparently didn't know, as Mollie at GetReligion explains:

   You can read more about Guadalupe here, but Roman Catholics believe that the beautiful image was miraculously imprinted on the cloak of a 16th-century peasant. It is Mexico’s most popular and important religious image and the basilica that houses it is the second-most popular Catholic shrine in the world.

   Oops!



2. Obamessiah Suck-up: As of Sunday, not a single mainstream media article mentioned the gaffe (the blogs are all over the story). By contrast, the press faithfully reported Secretary Clinton's next stop: a speech at Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s national conference in Houston, where Hillary received the Margaret Sanger Award, the organization’s highest honor, named after the group’s founder. Because the press knows this Administration sees feminists as a vastly more important constituency than believers in the Virgin Mary.



3. Farce: Had George Bush (or Dan Quayle) ended their visit as follows, the press would have been all over them--but Hillary gets a free pass:

   Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, "you have a marvelous virgin!"

   Blogger Dan Riehl imagines how Monsignor Monroy should have responded:

   Yeah, I heard your husband has had a few, as well!