Is there any length to which Barack Obama will not go to avoid admitting a mistake? ABC News writes about his shifting position on negotiations with Iran:
“I have to say I completely disagree that people have been walking back from anything,” Obama said. “They may be correcting the characterizations or distortions of John McCain or others of what I said. What I said was I would meet with our adversaries, including Iran, including Venezuela, including Cuba, including North Korea, without preconditions, but that does not mean without preparation.”
On CNN, Tuesday, Obama echoed [advisor Susan] Rice, saying he may not meet with Ahmadinejad.
“I think this obsession with Ahmadinejad is an example of us losing track of what’s important,” he said. “I would be willing to meet with Iranian leaders if we had done sufficient preparations for that meeting.
(Emphasis mine.) (Via LGF.) So, there would have to be preparations before a meeting could occur. That is precisely what a precondition is:
pre·con·di·tion
n. A condition that must exist or be established before something can occur or be considered; a prerequisite.
How does Obama explain the difference between a precondition and something that merely has to happen before an event can occur?
Last week, in South Dakota, Obama sought to explain what he meant at last July’s debate when he agreed to meetings “without preconditions.”
“Preconditions, as it applies to a country like Iran, for example, was a term of art because this administration has been very clear that it will not have direct negotiations with Iran until Iran has met preconditions that are, essentially, what Iran views and many other observers would view as the subject of the negotiations,” Obama told reporters.
I see. At the YouTube debate, Obama wasn’t using the word for its usual English meeting; it was a “term of art” that conveniently means something far less embarrassing now. (This is risible already, but lets not forget that Obama didn’t even use the word himself. The word was used in a question asked by a citizen in a YouTube video. How Obama can project his “term of art” into another person’s question is quite beyond me.)
An ordinary person might admit that he was overly hasty in answering the question, but not Obama.
Internet Scofflaw 