NOTICING IRAN

Posted at 7:29 a.m. ET:

The New York Times reports on the new administration's Iran policy, and you come off thinking that it doesn't really have one.  Consider this:

Mr. Obama’s aides say that no decision has been made yet about how to proceed on Iran policy. “We’re still reviewing Iran policy,” said Robert A. Wood, the acting State Department spokesman. Indeed, Mr. Ross has yet to be named to his new post. And while Mrs. Clinton also struck a conciliatory note toward Iran last week, Mr. Obama’s top aides have yet to sit down for a substantive meeting on Iran, administration officials said.

Do you get a sense of misplaced priorities?  Yesterday, the president and first lady went to a local school to read to kids.  Warm and fuzzy, but it won't stop an Iranian bomb. 

Then there's the question of getting our "friends" to increase pressure on Iran:

Mr. Obama’s aides are hoping that he can talk those countries into doing for him what they were unwilling to do for Mr. Bush. “I think Obama’s trip in April will be very important,” one administration official said, referring to Mr. Obama’s expected trip to attend the NATO summit meeting in Strasbourg, France, where he will meet with a number of European leaders for the first time as president.

So The One believes that, because he's The One, he can work magic.  Sort of like Kennedy's trip to see Khrushchev in Vienna in 1961.  Kennedy came away beaten and bleeding.

And there's this:

Several European diplomats said that France, Britain and Germany might be willing to consider sanctions if the Obama administration makes an effort to improve the atmosphere with Iran first.

Wait a second.  We have to prove to them that we have good will toward Iran? Already, Obama's groveling attitude is paying dividends...for the other side.

February 4, 2009.