In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Obama advisor Susan Rice tries to defend Obama’s shifting position on unconditional negotiation with Iran:
BLITZER: How does Senator Obama defend that decision to meet without preconditions with a leader like Ahmadinejad?
RICE: Well, first of all, he said he would meet with the appropriate Iranian leaders. He hasn’t named who that leader will be. It may in fact be that, by the middle next of year, Ahmadinejad is long gone. There will be elections in Iran.
And again:
BLITZER: So, let’s be precise, because what they criticize Barack Obama, not only John McCain, but others, for suggesting that he would meet without preconditions with Ahmadinejad, who only last week on Israel’s 60th anniversary called Israel a stinking corpse. The question that they ask is, what is Barack Obama going to talk with him about?
(CROSSTALK)
RICE: Well, first of all, as I said, it will be the appropriate Iranian leadership at the appropriate time, not necessarily Ahmadinejad.
(Via Power Line and the Weekly Standard.)
It’s interesting that Rice realizes how radioactive (so to speak) Ahmedinejad is, so she wants to back off the promise to meet with him in particular. This doesn’t really help though. Ahmedinejad is in power at least until August 2009, so there is no way that he will be “long gone” by the middle of 2009. Moreover, Ahmedinejad is basically selected by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who controls the candidate list. So if Ahmedinejad isn’t “re-elected,” it’s only because Khamenei has found someone else he likes better.
Question: is Susan Rice really the sort of person who would make this her first line of argument without even finding out when Ahmedinejad’s term ends? Or is she simply lying?
Later, Rice accuses McCain of “distortion” for quoting Obama accurately:
BLITZER: And just to clear up, there’s no hard and fast commitment he would in fact if he were president meet in that first year with any of these leaders [Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, or Syria]?
RICE: He said he’s willing to meet with these leaders, obviously, after preparation and at the appropriate time and when and as it serves our interests.
These are distortions, Wolf, that John McCain has found convenient because he knows that, if the American people are allowed to focus on his failed policies and that of George Bush, they won’t have a chance in this election. It’s all politics. And they continue to distort Barack Obama’s words and his intentions.
It’s a “distortion” to say that Obama would meet with those leaders in his first year, is it?
QUESTION: 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? . . .
OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous.
(Emphasis mine.)
Obama can “clarify” if he likes, but he is not being distorted. And as regards Susan Rice: no man (or woman) is more a scoundrel than the one who lies when calling another man a liar.
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