In a recent debate, Barack Obama blurted out that he'd be willing to meet with any terrorist, any dictator and any member of the Axis of Evil WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS.  He was attacked from all sides and has since tried to clarify away what should have been a gaffe fatal to his presidential aspirations.  

 

The problem with meeting with the world's bad guys without laying the ground work for a deal is that you don't want to give murderers legitimacy and respect without a guarantee that something productive will come from the discussions.   Everybody knows this, including by now the freshmen Senator from Illinois.   Incedentally, I find it puzzling that the McCain people don't utter the phrase "freshmen senator" at least 10 times a day when referring to Obama.  

 

Obama's gaffe did cause me to ponder.    Sometimes the most ignorant comments can generate useful discussions.    This is one of the reasons that brainstorming sessions often work.   What if we combined Obama's new diplomatic theory (the Kumbaya approach) with a straight-talk spit out truth all day long no matter who gets offended foreign policy (the Dr. Laura approach)?  Afterall Christians are not supposed to ignore our enemies.   Didn't Christ say that even the Pharisees say hello to their friends?   Laura Bush got in wrong when she blew by Ahmadinejad.  

 

Here's how the third way would work.   Bush has already met with North Korea so let's envision how this would work with the other remaining Axis of Evil charter member.   Our president would casually mention in a speech to the VFW that he has invited Ahmadinejad to a meeting at Camp David.   "The President of Iran has requested a meeting and I've invited him to America.   I'm not sure what he wants to talk about but I'm kind of curious.   The first thing I'm going to say to him after we shake hands is 'when are you going to stop killing Jews?"  

 

After the "summit" there would be no joint appearance or news conference, no celebration or photo ops.   No hugs.   Bush won't quote approvingly from the Koran.   Any prestige that the Iranians would be hoping for would be dashed by the following statement Bush makes to the nation that night.    "I won't say that the meeting went well, but I do feel good about it.   The Iranian leader spoke eloquently about how he is severing all ties to terrorists and how his nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.   The promises just flowed out of his mouth.   You should have seen the look on his face when I asked him to take a lie detector test." 

 

Or let's try Cuba.   Here's a sample statement that could be uttered at a presidential press conference after a meeting with Castro.  "Today I met with Raoul.   Or as I like to call him R.C.   The first thing I wanted to know was when he was going to honor his brother's 50 year old promise to hold free elections.   He looked at me kind of funny.    I really laid it on the line with him.   'We will end the embargo five minutes after the first democratically elected president of Cuba is sworn in.'   He said that the election would take place in 2010 and wanted the embargo partially lifted as a sign of good faith.   If you believe that one I got some IndyMac stock to sell you.