Bush: Getting Real At Last?

17 July 2008 |permalink | email article

B43 has authorized the most significant U.S. diplomatic contact with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Unclear is whether it’s a wake up call or more merely a rearrangement of the deck chairs as the band plays on.

The State Department will send its No. 3 official, William J. Burns, to Geneva this weekend for a meeting on Iran’s nuclear program which will include the European Union’s foreign policy chief and Iran’s nuclear negotiator..

Burns’ role will be limited to being present but not negotiate.

Bush’s spokeswoman says nothing has changed. But the decision clearly weakens the administration’s decision that it would not negotiate with Iran over its nuclear programs unless it first suspended uranium enrichment.

The contact is certain to scramble the foreign policy debate in the presidential campaign with perhaps some advantage for Obama.

He said that Iran’s missile tests increase the need for direct diplomacy, with certain conditions, as well as tougher threats of economic sanctions to get Tehran to change course.

Republican McCain said the Iranian tests demonstrated the need for an effect missile defense system in Europe.

It’s unclear if McCain was informed of Bush’s break with past policy but he’s sided with the president in sharply limiting contact while attacking Obama’s Iran approach.

Forget California. The latest Field Poll has Obama ahead of McCain by 24 points. The Democrat leads among voters in both genders, all racial groups, in most geographic areas and among all age groups.

Hillary Clinton’s backers prefer Obama, 80 to 8 percent, and he has a 2-to-1 lead among the state’s likely female voters.

Quote of the Day

“Everyone is so outraged, outraged, outraged all the time that we’re defining outrage down. If our outrage meter hits 10 at every conceivable sleight or remark, then when something really outrageous happens – something truly morally despicable or cowardly takes place – we’re numb. Outrage moves votes and changes opinion. But if everything is outrageous, then nothing is. And that’s outrageous.” The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reflecting on opinion coverage of the New Yorker’s Obama cover.

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