A Lesson in Squishy Diplomacy

by Left Coast Rebel contributor Shaun in NY.

Barack Obama was steadfast during the campaign and after his election in his willingness to enter into negotiations with Iran without preconditions.

But Obama is not willing to enter into health care negotiations with Republicans without preconditions.
In inviting Republicans to the negotiating table for the first time later this month, Obama has imposed the precondition that the negotiations start with the Democratic versions of health care legislation.

Jacobson nails another tongue-in-cheek, statist, hypocrisy right to the wall. However, the paradox that Jacobson points out is more of a paradigm, when it comes to Obama. To understand what the paradigm is we need to understand why Obama demands that the talks with Republicans must start with the Democratic versions.

Obama has pushed for the most liberal bill that the most liberal congress in modern history was willing to put their names to, but now the political capital has shifted to the opposing party. Forcing the talks to start with a far left bill ensures that the Republicans will have little chance in moving the legislation close to the center. To start back at the drawing board would mean a more Republican and voter-friendly bill.

So Jacobson is correct to point out the folly that as we watch hard line Obama draw a line in the sand in talks with the Republicans and in that brevity, demand that the bill remain in the political stream of the left, while at the same time Obama is as squishy as Jell-O when it comes to Iran.

The point to any negotiation is to achieve a goal. Under President Bush, the goal with Iran was obvious, crazy people can’t have nuclear weapons. The purpose of refusing talks unless preconditions were met was a very important negotiation tactic. Like Obama with the health care bill, Bush dug the heals of US foreign policy into the sand and said there would be no movement in negotiation unless a nuclear Iran was off the table.

Now what does it say at the negotiation table when Obama pulled this chip off the table? It signaled that a nuclear Iran was an outcome the US might be willing to accept. It was an amateur move, which is why “Team ObamaT has been out, in desperation damage control, trying to get Russia and China to pressure Iran. A holy grail, that is as illusive to Obama as it was to the Knights of the Round Table.

Wait. There is another angle to the upcoming Health Care talks and it shows just how spineless the Republicans are in accepting Obama’s offer for a sit down. It seems they’ve learned nothing from Obama’s failed foreign policies. They are not gaining political momentum for trying to work with Obama on health care, but opposing Obama’s legislative goals. Meeting on the current legislation is eating from the poisonous apple.

The smart tactic would have been to give the President preconditions to any possible heath care talks. Those preconditions should have been that the current legislation must be off the table. That’s a sign that you are with the rest of America in obstructing the Obama agenda. The “Party of No” could have been the rallying cry for an energized electorate. Instead, the Republicans have chosen Obama’s signature, squishy diplomacy.

Cross posted at Lucianne

Originally posted Left Coast Rebel

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