See Obama has followed through on his campaign promise to reach out to the Iranians - heartfelt video message beamed to Persians everywhere stating ol' Uncle Sam be ready to play nice. Like I've said before, if this 'reaching out' is part of some earnest and sincere attempt to redefine the relationship, I think they're out of their minds and the Ayatollahs will have their way with them. On the other hand if it's part of a long term strategy to control imagery and perceptions on several levels regarding various audiences - well then I could possibly support that. Problem is, if latter, and you end up, either by design or mere consequence, portraying the Persian theocracy as unyielding, deceitful, hostile etc etc, what that leaves you with is an implied intention to take things to the next level - ie if Obama really is playing hardball here he better have thought out all his pitches because, to extend the metaphor, if the guy doesn't bite on your curveball, you gotta come inside, you gotta challenge him, and that's when the game gets dangerous.
This is why, if they do seriously imagine the engendering of some kind of rapprochement, that Obama could quickly find himself out flanked and with no alternatives but to back down - this why Hillary was right to call him naive when during campaign he suggested talking to the Iranians - again, it all depends if this part of a long term strategy or simply a sentimental act not grounded by realism and sound reasoning.
