Debate This

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has thrown down the gauntlet. He has challenged President Bush to a debate, a verbal sparring match to be televised live.

I guess Ahmadinejad felt upstaged by the Hurricane Katrina anniversary celebration. He needed to do something dramatic to get some headlines.

He succeeded.

From The New York Times:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meant to use Tuesday to focus attention on his challenge to the president of the United States: a face-off in a live televised debate.

But at a freewheeling two-hour news conference, Mr. Ahmadinejad also found himself challenged by local reporters who questioned the government’s economic program and its tolerance of a critical press.

The marathon question-and-answer session offered a window into one of the many contradictions of Iranian politics and governance: even as the government grows more authoritarian, it is openly criticized and challenged on its performance.

This was Mr. Ahmadinejad’s fourth news conference since taking office a year ago, and it came just three days before a deadline set by the United Nations Security Council for Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium.

The president used the opportunity to continue Iran’s defiant posture toward the West — the United States and Britain in particular. He made it clear that Iran would not meet the deadline and that it would risk sanctions.

It is an interesting contradiction. Not all of the Iranian people are willing to go along with the madman Ahmadinejad's plan for the country and its role in the world.

Ahmadinejad has to walk a fine line.

He wants to be the little Hitler, but he can't push too far and alienate the people.

“I announce that I am fully prepared to debate world and international issues with George Bush in a televised debate,” he said in his prepared remarks. “Of course, only under the conditions that this debate is broadcast live and without censors, especially for the nation of U.S.”

Personally, I would love to see a debate between Bush and Ahmadinejad.

Mike Wallace could be the moderator. Or Dan Rather -- he'd be great.

It would make for fascinating TV.

The debates that Bush had with Gore and Kerry, losers in 2000 and 2004, had their entertaining moments. Gore's sighing in the first debate and the way he threateningly approached Bush in the third one are memorable moments in American politics. Kerry's goofy "global test" remark is another.

I think Bush would be great with the Iranian president.

I suppose Ahmadinejad has studied the tapes of Bush's debates with Gore and Kerry. He probably is even more pompous than they are, and is confident that he could easily beat Bush going head to head.

Bush, though not slick or a wonk, can be quick. He cuts to the chase. Ahmadinejad is probably underestimating Bush and overestimating his own abilities, just as Gore and Kerry did.

Contrary to popular lib belief, Bush is not an idiot. Let's be honest. Some of the supposedly brilliant Dems are dolts.

Although the White House immediately dismissed the challenge as a diversion, Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks appeared intended to further three objectives: to position Iran as taking the moral high ground by making the United States look like the party unwilling to talk; to drive a wedge between the United States and Britain on one side and France and Germany on the other; and to reiterate Iran’s determined refusal to give up its enrichment program.

Simply put, Ahmadinejad didn't meet his three objectives.

And of course it was a diversion.

...The news conference veered off into an unruly question-and-answer session, with reporters praising the president, questioning him and some jumping from their seats demanding that their questions be taken. The president politely admonished one reporter, saying he needed to behave better.

One reporter said he had no question but wanted to recite poetry.

A reporter for a small newspaper called The Path of the People stood to ask a question and said: “I was hoping when you arrived I would share my pain with you. Now I have no pain in my heart, only happiness.”

It sounds like a bizarre scene; but when you think about it, it's no stranger than White House press conferences.

Bush has to keep the unruly reporters in line.

And Helen Thomas' recitations, though hardly poetic, are odd little speeches. Often, she behaves like a drunken heckler at a Comedy Club.

Many in the White House press corps like to share their pain. However, I don't think that they are tranformed to a state of bliss in the course of a press conference; but they do make it personal. David Gregory is a case in point.

But as the conference continued, Mr. Ahmadinejad found himself challenged on several issues of local importance, most focusing on the economy or on efforts to silence criticism of his government in the press.

One reporter said the government’s decision to spend billions of dollars to subsidize gasoline amounted to welfare for the rich, an assertion the president disputed. Another said that although the president claimed to support the press, his spokesman sought to have the judiciary investigate critical reporters.

“This contradicts what you said,” the reporter said into the microphone as Mr. Ahmadinejad listened. The same reporter said the president’s interior minister had denied permits to 14 groups wanting to hold demonstrations.

The president responded quickly, dismissing the complaints, and he tried to move on. But the challenges kept coming — not one after the other, but more consistently as the confidence in the room seemed to grow.

I give credit to the Iranian press for not letting Ahmadinejad exploit them.

The president, in his now trademark cream-colored suit and open collar with no tie, entered the packed conference hall from a side door. He climbed up onto a platform and briefly held his right hand over his head in a sort of hero’s greeting to the crowd.

He smiled through much of the conference, joked with questioners, and bobbed and weaved around many questions. He avoided answering directly when asked if Iran would be willing to take steps to prove that it was not after a nuclear weapons program, or if it would be willing to have face-to-face talks with the United States.

Ahamdinejad went into his 60 Minutes persona -- smiling and joking.

Charming!

But Mr. Ahmadinejad did give some insight into sometimes ambiguous meaning of some of his statements. On Saturday the president said, “We are not a threat for any country, even the Zionist regime that is the enemy of the countries in the region.”

A reporter asked if that represented a change in position from his earlier call for Israel to be removed from the region. He replied by saying that swatting a baby’s hand to stop it from putting its fingers in a fire is not a threat.

“We are a peaceful country,” he said, “but recognize legitimate defense as our legal right.”

Ahmadinejad reminds me of Bill Clinton.

He just lies when it becomes necessary. I think he eventually believes his own lies.

...On the topic of debating his American counterpart, Mr. Ahmadinejad’s objective seemed as clear as when he sent Mr. Bush a letter last spring asking him to re-examine his foreign policies in the light of his Christian values.

During his interview with Ahmadinejad, Mike Wallace read those portions of that lame long letter, giving the impression that it was a rational communication.

It wasn't.

While the White House dismissed the letter, and many of Iran’s own intellectuals scoffed at it, the Iranian president won points among his growing legion of followers in the region. Political analysts said he was hoping for the same response with the debate proposal.

It's funny that The Times talks about "his growing legion of followers in the region" right after the case is made that Ahmadinejad is challenged and clearly has a large band of feisty detractors.

“He is saying we want to talk, but Bush is refusing,” said Mustafa el-Labbad, an expert in Iranian affairs based in Cairo. “He wants to embarrass him by saying, ‘We are willing to negotiate, but he is refusing.’ ”

Ahmadinejad may score points among his loyal followers for the debate challenge, but others will realize the truth -- that the Iranian president is a vain man and likes to appear on American television.

Is it the make-up?