The Cable
The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Michelle calls Hillary senator – um – president?

At today’s awards ceremony honoring "international women of courage," First Lady Michelle Obama accidentally demoted, and then later promoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the amusement and celebration of the crowd. "Let me thank my dear friend, Senator — Secretary Clinton," the first lady started, provoking laughter from the assembled group at the State ...

Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images

At today's awards ceremony honoring "international women of courage," First Lady Michelle Obama accidentally demoted, and then later promoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the amusement and celebration of the crowd.

At today’s awards ceremony honoring "international women of courage," First Lady Michelle Obama accidentally demoted, and then later promoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the amusement and celebration of the crowd.

"Let me thank my dear friend, Senator — Secretary Clinton," the first lady started, provoking laughter from the assembled group at the State Department.

Trying to recover, she then admitted, ‘I almost said ‘President Clinton.’ The crowd roared with applause.

Awkward!

Check out the video here.

Mrs. Obama went on to recognize the 10 recipients of the award, including Kenyan advocate Ann Njogu, Afghan police officer Col. Shafiqa Quraishi, North Korean defector Lee Ae-ran, and Zimbabwean human rights advocate Jestina Mukoko.

Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.

Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.

A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.

Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin

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