President Obama's "smart diplomacy" with Iran has turned sour. His belated sanctions against Iran on the nuclear issue have not brought bring Iran to the negotiating table, nor opened it to effective international inspections.  Instead, they appear to have increased Iranian resolve in their concerted push for nuclear weapons. And they have set oil prices shooting skywards, increasing the price of gasoline at the pump in America. For Obama, a defiant Iranian announcement on the nuclear front before November and continuing high oil prices through the summer and fall would be a nightmare from the point of view of the President's prospects for winning a second term in November. If you look at the same prospects from the point of view of the Iranian leadership, an Obama loss in November would be an outright tragedy. No realistically conceivable successor to Obama is ever likely to grant Iran the unstinting patience with which President Obama has treated its headlong push to nuclear...(Read Full Post)