I can certainly accept Mr. Dickerson's argument for HRC meaning her administration with "I", not herself personally, particularly given that she followed up her point later in the media discussing how sending low-level emissaries is the responsible first steps when engaging with a hostile foreign power. My question then, is did Obama explicitly say that, he, Barack Obama, would immediately engage with Iran's leaders with no conditions, or did he also mean his administration? When he was being hammered for this, I thought of the same defense for him that Dickerson gave to HRC, that he was talking about his administration, and he wouldn't necessarily be flying to Tehran on Jan. 21, 2009. Did Barack explicitly say otherwise, or are we giving Hillary more leeway on this issue than we are Obama?

It's teh latter, becasue Hillary is One Of Us and Obama is not; maybe not yet, maybe not ever. I think he has swell One Of Us potential, but the Dickerson types decided she'd be the candidate like two years ago, absent some kind of unpredictable disaster, like she gets impregnated by Bat Boy or The Alien from WWN.


Whoo, whole lotta capital letters, must stop that. There's this polite but crappy little game that the Washington presscorps plays where they let one of the Batchelors make some unfounded wack statement and then the OTHERS all have to adjust to it. Imagine the Dating Game with middle-aged guys only, and they're the same guys for years on end, saying the same stuff, trying to keep it endurable. Sounds like Performance Art, doesn't it?

The surprises don't come when they fawn on Hillary and she moves on micromillimeter closer. They come when a designated stud like Freddie turns out to be a total loser.

The question posed was:

QUESTION: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since.

In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?

The question clearly is about meetings between the heads of states. Obama clearly understands the question correctly, as he not only says "I would," but goes on to cite summit meetings between U.S. Presidents and Soviet Premiers as precedent...

Fair enough, it look like it is so. I would certainly say it is arguable that "without precondition" could still include first meeting with lower-level emissaries and then working up from there, and doesn't mean that he would meet with them without consideration of which meetings would be of benefit and which would not. The question and answer do seem to imply a more direct meeting, however, than is indicated by Hillary. Thanks for the fact check, Tony.

My question then, is did Obama explicitly say that, he, Barack Obama, would immediately engage with Iran's leaders with no conditions, or did he also mean his administration?

Great question and the right one. Obama said this at the time:

My question then, is did Obama explicitly say that, he, Barack Obama, would immediately engage with Iran's leaders with no conditions, or did he also mean his administration?

Great question and the right one. Obama said this at the time which suggested his personal involvement.

“If I sit down with a leader of Iran I will send them a strong message that Israel is our friend and that we will assist in their security and that we don’t find nuclear weapons acceptable… that’s not going to be a propaganda coup for Iran, but what it does do is allow us to send a message to the rest of the world that we are willing to sit down and talk. [What she said] during the debate and subsequently was that she would not meet with various leaders unless certain preconditions were met. Now, if that’s not what she means, she should say so. But that was the question that was posed at the debate. You need to get clarification from her if they are walking back from the position that we stated."

"The general principle that I was laying out is that we should not be afraid as America to meet with anybody…Now, they may not like what we want to hear -- so if I’m talking to the President of Iran, I’m going to inform him that Israel is our stalwart ally, and we are going to do what's necessary to protect them -- that we will not accept a nuclear bomb in Iran, but that doesn’t mean we can’t say that face to face."