Sorry Mahmoud, No Meeting

Barack continues to move his promise to meet with leaders of countries like Iran and Cuba during his first year in office into more responsible territory.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama underscored his willingness to talk to leaders of countries like Iran that are considered U.S. adversaries but said that does not necessarily mean an audience with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

While he sounds lame in his word parsing, and he proves Hillary and McCain right in going after him for the foolhardy commitment, Barack can start to present a more credible, pro-dialogue, position.

Obama, an Illinois senator, said Iranian presidential elections in 2009 would be a factor in considering the timing of any meetings, as would considerations of who wields the power.

"There's no reason why we would necessarily meet with Ahmadinejad before we know that he was actually in power. He's not the most powerful person in Iran," Obama told reporters while campaigning in New Mexico.

Sure. That was all true, of course, before you said you'd meet with Ahmadinejad in your first year in office. As McCain has said,

....sitting down with someone like Ahmadinejad would give the Iranian president a spotlight and send the wrong signal to U.S. allies such as Israel.

Iran does not recognize Israel's existence and Ahmadinejad has called the country a "stinking corpse."

Which is why Obama spent a chunk of last week trying to convince Jewish voters in Florida that he wouldn't abandon Israel and could be trusted on Iran.