Barack Obama Supports Ahmadinejad Talks with No Pre-conditions

Obama and Meeting Ahmadinejad
Debate: Not for a Meeting without Pre-Conditions
Obama's Website: For a Meeting without Pre-Conditions




Is Barack Obama for or against meeting Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, without pre-conditions?

Depends on when Obama's asked the question.

During the first presidential debate, Obama certainly sounded like it was preposterous for John McCain to even suggest that Obama would meet the man who's vowed to "wipe Israel off the map" without pre-conditions.

From Marc Ambinder: In July of 2007, Barack Obama was asked by a video questioner: "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?....."

"I would," he answered.

When Senator Hillary Clinton attacked Obama over that stance, Obama operative, David Axelrod started the backing and filling.

"What he meant was, as a government, he’d be willing and eager to initiate those kinds of talks, just as during the Cold War there were low-level discussions and mid-level discussions between us and the Soviet Union and so on. So he was not promising summits with all of those leaders."

A visit to barrackobama.com says the exact opposite, however.

"Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions."

From Yes, Obama supports direct presidential talks with Ahmadinejad:

In friday's debate, Obama continuously denied that he supported direct talks with president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. According to Obama's own website:

Diplomacy: Obama supports tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions. Now is the time to pressure Iran directly to change their troubling behavior. Obama and Biden would offer the Iranian regime a choice. If Iran abandons its nuclear program and support for terrorism, we will offer incentives like membership in the World Trade Organization, economic investments, and a move toward normal diplomatic relations. If Iran continues its troubling behavior, we will step up our economic pressure and political isolation. Seeking this kind of comprehensive settlement with Iran is our best way to make progress.

It's no wonder that Obama runs from positions he took when he was trying to win the Democrat nomination--he had to appeal to the DailyKOS/Code Pink wing of the party. During the national election, he has to appeal to a much broader electorate.

But according to his own website, Obama would meet with Ahmadinejad without pre-conditions.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly stated that he will "wipe Israel off the map" the moment Iran possesses the nuclear capability to do so. Some on the Left has said that Ahmadinejad did not really say that--that he was merely quoting the Ayatollah Khomeini. Google "myth of wiping Israel off the map" and over 57,000 results are returned.

At the same appearance in Tehran, Ahmadinejad also spoke of the "fairy tale of the Holocaust".

"Now in the West insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning the Holocaust is considered a crime," he said, accusing Europaeans of not allowing "neutral scholars" to investigate "the truth about the fairy tale of Holocaust."

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today echoed his earlier threats to "wipe Israel off the map" by telling a mass demonstration in Tehran, commemorating the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, that Palestinians and "other nations" will remove Israel from the region...

Meanwhile, the crowd chanted, "Death to America," "Death of Israel," "Death to Denmark."

Ahmadinejad doesn't want to annihilate Israel; John McCain "mischaracterized" Obama's position.




Ahmadinejad did say he would "remove" Israel from the region--as many maps in the Arab world have already done.

It little wonder the Mainstream Media doesn't fact-check Barack Obama: first, he's their chosen candidate; second, pinning down a lawyer on exactly what he stands for or against is no easy task--even when you're trying.

Obama has said--more than once-- he would meet Ahmadinejad "without pre-conditions".
Regardless of what Obama said in the first presidential debate--on national TV, trying to appeal to a national audience--he's still insisting on his own website, that a no pre-conditions meeting is his position.


by Mondo
hat tip: rizzuto
image: Alex Wong; CNN

Jimmy Carter Needs Help with Hamas

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
--Hamas charter

Jimmy summons his mental energy

Former president and current professional terrorist apologist, Jimmy Carter, once again demonstrates he needs to get on the phone to Vanna White and buy a clue.

Carter's answer to protests that he's meeting with militants from the terrorist group, Hamas, was positively beauty pageant-esque: "I'm quite at ease". Carter went on to say that Hamas was "essential" to any future peace with Israel.

Of course, Jimmy knows that the stated goal of Hamas is to destroy Israel. What kind of essential peace will Jimmy be able to achieve with a group whose charter states:

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

Carter, like a bad yeast infection, just won't go away. He spoke on ABC's This Week also said he would oppose a U.S. Olympic boycott and hopes all countries will join in the Beijing games--presumably after holding hands, singing songs and exchanging wet kisses.



Also at DBKP.com: "Carter, Hamas: Jimmy Needs to Make the Call".

At least Carter has some experience with Olympic boycotts. The U.S. boycott of the Olympics in 1980 was the only time Carter showed any spine. Like most of his other forays into the international arena, it was ineffective and only hurt U.S. athletes.

Several State Department officials, including the secretary, Condoleezza Rice, criticized Carter's plans to talk in Syria this week with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and the group. Carter said he had not heard the objections directly, although a State Department spokesman said earlier that a senior official from the department had called the former president.

"President Carter is a private citizen. We respect his views," Stephen Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, said Sunday on ABC.

Want to play "Pretend Middle East Peace"?
Jimmy does too! Buy the home edition!

Jimmy Carter had his chance at playing "International Politics Mystery Date". It came back during 1977-81. The USA's flirtation with the peanut-farmer-turned-Georgia governor resembled a bad one night stand: both suffered regrets and tried forgetting about the whole thing--and neither party respected the other in the morning.

If Jimmy Carter were not so smugly self-assured, he might listen to just one piece of advice before he leaves for his pow wow with Hamas.

It's not to late.

Jimmy, pick up the phone and make that call to Vanna.

by Mondoreb
story idea: RidesAPaleHorse
image: salon
Sources:
* Jimmy Carter Defends Meeting with Hamas
* Carter, Hamas: Jimmy Needs to Make the Call


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