Re: EDWARDS AND IRAN. I'm having a bit of trouble buying the Variety article Garance references below. I've heard Edwards talk about Israel dozens of times now, in response to all different sorts of audiences, and he's been vehemently pro-Israel before every single one. I've heard him talk about Iran a number more, and even conducted an interview with him on the subject, and he's again been consistently concerned about an Iranian nuclear weapon, and committed to stopping it -- often in terms I disagreed with. Add in that the Edwards campaign isn't simply disputing the context of the article, they're actually denying its accuracy. According to a press release sent out last night: "The January 19th Variety article is erroneous. Senator Edwards did not say nor does he believe that the greatest short-term threat to world peace is the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. Senator Edwards said, as he has in the past, that Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon is one of the greatest short-term threats to world peace." That doesn't mean it isn't true -- or that Edwards didn't awkwardly phrase a more benign argument and accidentally make this interpretation true -- but I wouldn't treat it as gospel just yet. If Edwards wanted to flip this aggressively on Israel and Iran, he wouldn't be disputing the article's accuracy. Which is a shame, as it certainly seems to me that an Israeli bombing of Iran is a helluva threat to short term world peace. Update: And this is probably a good time to link to my feature profile of Edwards in the new issue. So let there be links! --Ezra Klein
