Dmitry Medvedev has some election advice for Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican field. They should "check their watches from time to time: It is 2012, not the mid-1970s." As Barack Obama worked to explain Monday's "hot mic" comment to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Medvedev had a much more entertaining response to Mitt Romney's criticism of the supposed gaffe: He mocked Romney for being out of touch and getting his foreign policy ideas from Hollywood. "It is very reminiscent of Hollywood and also of a certain phase in Russian-U.S. relations," Medvedev said on Tuesday, referring to Romney's statement to Wolf Blitzer that Russia was "without question our number one geopolitical foe." Romney had been working hard to seize on Obama telling Medvedev "after my election I'll have more flexibility" on missile defense, in front of a working microphone.

The president, however, is not touching Romney's own little gaffe in characterizing Russia as the United States' main opponent (as opposed to, say, Iran or China, as Blitzer pointed out). But Medvedev's got nothing to lose by blatantly making fun of the GOP candidate. He told reporters on Tuesday:  "My first advice is to listen to reason when they formulate their positions. Reason never harmed a presidential candidate... My other advice is to check their watches from time to time: it is 2012, not the mid-1970s." As international mockery over geopolitics goes, that's a zinger.

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Adam Martin