Sunday, October 05, 2008

Obama would meet unconditionally with our enemies

Biden also fibbed when he said Barack Obama never said he would meet unconditionally with the Iranian leader. The fact is Obama did say it. It was during a Democrat Primary debate on July 23, 2007. Anderson Cooper was the moderator and it was at the University of South Carolina. If you want to fact check me here is the exact transcript. If you scroll about half way down the page you will find it.

Q: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since. In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries? Senator Obama.OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.

And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them. We've been talking about Iraq -- one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they're going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.

They have been acting irresponsibly up until this point. But if we tell them that we are not going to be a permanent occupying force, we are in a position to say that they are going to have to carry some weight, in terms of stabilizing the region.


Biden was well aware of this, because he opposed and criticized Obama for it at the National Press Club in August of 2007 while campaigning against him for the Democratic nomination.

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