Despite a prominent and controversial platform plank which promised dialogue with all the world's states, President Obama will not meet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when both arrive in New York City for the U.N. General Assembly. Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. was quoted by the Hill as saying, "With respect to the Iranian leader, I don't think there's much likelihood that there will be an interaction. There's no obvious venue in which that would occur, and certainly we have no meetings or anything of the sort planned." Certainly a precondition for any meeting is a venue, and that might be hard to find in New York, especially now that they can't meet at the Helmsley Hotel.
Admittedly, Mr. Obama has a lot on his plate right now, what with unemployment over ten percent in the city and over fifteen percent in places like Michigan. Not to mention healthcare and teabaggers. But just in case Mr. Obama has forgotten the inspiring grandiloquence of his campaign of so long ago, he said, "the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration, is ridiculous." Here's the video from that famous debate. Ah, to be young and idealistic again.
