Posted on 06/26/2009 1:00:12 PM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama had been playing his cards cautiously on the political turmoil in Iran -- until conservatives goaded him to escalate his rhetorical condemnation of the uprising.
Obama had tried to steer clear of any public comment about the disputed reelection of Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the massive protests by supporters of the opposition candidate and the government crackdown on the protesters.
At a news conference Tuesday, Obama caved in to those right-wing columnists and political hawks who wanted him to hit the Iranian mullahs harder.
These are the same critics who pushed the American people into the 7-year, no-win war with Iraq, a war of tremendous human cost that has wasted billions of dollars.
For example, former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, now a visiting scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, recently wrote: "Now is not the time for the president to dig in a neutral position. It is time to change course." Wolfowitz was one of the leading architects of the Bush administration’s drive to invade Iraq in 2003.
Hawkish columnist Charles Krauthammer recently scoffed at Obama for seeking a dialogue with the Iranian clerics, suggesting that Obama was "afraid of the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror -- and the people in the street yearning to breathe free."
Oddly, in the middle of setting the scene for Obama to shift his views on Iran, the White House staff achieved new lows in its continuing campaign to manipulate the news media. Staffers had alerted Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post, a blogger in touch with protesters in Iran, the night before that he would be called on at the White House press conference.
And, lo, after Obama finished an opening statement to reporters about the Iranian struggle for freedom, he then sought out Pitney in the press corps.
"I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?" Obama asked, with a straight face.
Pitney replied: "Yes, I did, I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian. We solicited questions last night from people who are still courageous enough to be communicating online, and one of them wanted to ask you this: Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad?"
In response, Obama said there were significant questions about the legitimacy of the Iranian election but that, "ultimately, this is up to the Iranian people to decide who their leadership is going to be and the structure of their government."
The stage craft was exquisite: Obama responding to a real live Iranian through a reporter at a White House news conference.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs defended the pre-selection of Pitney on the basis that the blogger had been in contact with Iranians in Iran. Furthermore, the White House didn’t ask Pitney to ask any specific question. Thus, while the questioner may have been planted at the news conference, his actual question was not, according to the Gibbs defense.
Relations between the U.S. and Iran have been at the razor’s edge since Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry in 1953.
In response, the CIA deposed him and put the Shah back on the throne. The despised Ayatollah Khomeini followed him with his revolutionary students in 1979.
Under pressure, Obama has been upping his rhetoric while keeping open his options, which are very few in reality.
He said he was "appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings and imprisonments in the past few days" by the Iranian authorities. "Those who stand for justice are always on the right side of history," Obama told reporters.
The words "just" and "justice" have big meaning in the Koran.
He also described as heartbreaking the video of a 26-year-old Iranian woman shot on a Tehran street.
One thing is clear: We are witnessing a new chapter in Iranian history. Once the people hit the streets massively for days, it’s only a matter of time for revolutionary change.
I’m glad she’s not in her Bikini.
Here I sit
Broken hearted
Paid a dime
and Helen Thomas
Ping-a-ling to the Helen Thomas ping list...FReepmail me if you'd like to be added to the list.
Now THERE’S an image I could’ve lived without...
If one didn't know better they'd swear that picture was something someone found in some obscure place and posted to smear Liberal media co-conspirators.
I bet when Trick-or-Treaters come to her door they leave feeling like failures because they think the costume of the person handing out the candy is so much better than theirs.
Now THERE’S an image I could’ve lived without...
___________________________
Hee hee. I knew I’d get a response.
You ought to be banned for that!
I consider it a public service. :-)
Helen’s not so bad. She sent a fruit basket to Sarah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb7g5T9G2VA
That is as hideously graphic as you can get, and not be banned.
Admit YOUR SIDE lost, you old BAT!!!
You’re a sadist.
???
This is not the Helen I thought I knew. Wow.
Actually, I suspect that trick-0-treaters run screaming from her home when she opens her door.
Looks and sounds like our Hell-en.
Obama doesn’t have a clue, and Thomas is trying to make him out as some kind of genius? She’s a liberal nut.
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