PrintOctober 3, 2008
Biden's Big Lie #1
Frequent AT blog contributor Ethel Fenig brought this to my attention at Little Green Footballs; Biden repeating the bald faced, easily confirmed lie that Barack Obama never said he would meet with the leader of Iran "unconditionally."
He said it in the Democratic debate of 7/23/07. Here's the exact transcript:
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.
He said it in the Democratic debate of 7/23/07. Here's the exact transcript:
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.
And lest there be any confusion (and on this issue, Obama has been all over the map, trying to explain his position, lying continuously about what he said, and even trying to change what he meant) Marc Ambinder has a helpful history of this entire sordid little affair here. Obama not only continued to insist that he would meet with leaders like Chavez without conditions, but that his political opponents were distorting what he said!
Unmitigated gall.
