Say Anything Blog

Personally, I’d say one of Obama’s biggest problems is that he’s not obsessed enough with Iran and all the other threats facing this country.

Obama added that his views on dialogue with Cuba and with Iran followed the same guidelines. “And what I’ve said is I would be willing to meet without preconditions, but with a lot of preparation — and this is the same argument that we’ve been having with respect to Iran,” he said.

“John McCain essentially wants to continue George Bush’s policies of not talking to leaders we don’t like and not talking to countries we don’t like. It has been a failed policy,” said the Illinois senator, adding that Iran had gotten stronger because President Bush “engaged in a war in Iraq that John McCain facilitated that has strengthened Iran.”

McCain suggested at a Chicago campaign event Monday that Obama doesn’t understand the “basic realities of international relations” and that engaging Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad diplomatically would only embolden him.

“Senator Obama has declared, and repeatedly reaffirmed his intention to meet the President of Iran without any preconditions, likening it to meetings between former American Presidents and the leaders of the Soviet Union,” said McCain, who frequently criticizes Ahmedinajad on the campaign trail. “Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama’s inexperience and reckless judgment.”

Obama said Tuesday that “this obsession with Ahmadinejad is an example of us losing track of what’s important.

Am I the only one thinking Obama’s preconditions/preparation distinction smells remarkably like the same sort of waffles that did John Kerry in?  And what are these preparations Obama would insist on?  And why didn’t he start talking about them until after he started taking heat on the issue of diplomacy with Iran?

Once again, with Obama all we’re getting is a bunch of nice campaign patter but not a lot of substance.

And by the way, Bush’s foreign policy has hardly made Iran stronger as Obama suggests.  What has made Iran stronger is weak-willed diplomacy from the UN and certain European countries.  They’ve been talking and talking and talking with Iran for years trying to get the country to stop its nuclear program and comply with international standards, but all it’s done is allowed Iran to drag its feet diplomatically and continue developing its nuclear technology.

I’d like to know what sort of talking Obama plans on doing that will be any different from all the talking other nations have done with Iran already.