Jonathan, Liz Cheney, just like you and me, is greatly “troubled” by the moral equivalence. She notes that the notion of some friendly outreach to Iran was met with stony silence in Cairo. Cheney reviews the extent to which Obama was forced to ignore Iran’s current bad behavior. (You sort of have to leave it unsaid or everyone wonders why you’re not doing something about that, right?)

Our allies, as Cheney points out, aren’t buoyed by an unconditional outreach to Iran. And she didn’t like the analogy between the Palestinians’ position and American slavery one bit. Richard Haass says, oh it’s all about “first principles” and we shouldn’t be looking at each word. Well, that’s rich — the president goes abroad on the most publicized international address of his presidency and we’re not supposed to take it all that seriously. I thought words had meaning and all that.