Condoleezza Rice. Photograph: RIMGA/Getty
This morning Condoleezza Rice - or was it Vicky Pollard? - made one of those terrible errors foreign language speakers sometimes make when they are put on the spot. The worst I've done was ordered boiled fish in a Portuguese restaurant when I wanted it grilled (actually, that's not the worst, but it is the worst I can go into for now … ).
Ms Rice went one step further and told a Russian radio station she wanted to stand for president. "Da" (yes) the former Soviet expert said when a caller in Russia asked her if she might consider a run for the White House. She followed with the word "nyet" (no) seven times in a row. Her biggest speaking error to that point had been to refer to George Bush as "my husband", though that time she could not even hide behind rusty Russian.
