Won’t Back Down

Watching Barack Obama and John McCain go at it this last week, it became clear that they agree on one thing: Iran is the topic of choice.

The now-famous “appeasement” episode, in which President Bush took his shot at Obama while speaking to the Israeli Knesset, was designed to boost McCain, but it turned out to be an early Christmas present for Obama. Jumping feet first into the general election, and taking on President Bush himself, Obama proclaimed that the ill-advised invasion and occupation of Iraq has emboldened and empowered Iran and he defended his idea of meeting with enemies by citing America’s history of such meetings conducted by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan.

But McCain is happy to knock Obama’s willingness to do so “without preconditions.” McCain raps Obama’s inexperience and lack of judgment and quotes creepy, outrageous statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to drive home his point that this young community organizer isn’t to be trusted with such a serious job.

Obama has boldly calculated that he doesn’t have to follow his party’s recent track on foreign policy. “I’m not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that’s the safest ground politically,” he recently told Jeffrey Goldberg in an interview for The Atlantic. It turns out some Democrats are nervous about it, including former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (Tenn.), former Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado, and even Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, who expressed differing opinions on Sunday shows about Obama’s stance.

Obama is offering “preparations” instead of “pre-conditions,” and it might make both Democrats and Republicans nervous. He might not be on politically safe ground, but he’s not backing down.

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WHO IS RIGHT OR WRONG ON IRAN? ASK A.B. returns Tuesday, May 27 — To join my weekly video Q & A, send your questions and comments to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com. Thank you.