Wishes come true, Judis on McCain, and Samantha Power

As I previously hoped, the United States is making a shift in policy in Iran, adopting a position similar to the one we took against North Korea.

From The Guardian:

That dreaded spectre appears to be receding for now. A "second North Korea" remains the preferred model for the US state department and the European allies – meaning talks leading to voluntary disarmament in return for security, aid and normalisation. This is just the sort of multilateral "soft power" horsetrading Cheney & Co cannot abide.

I also liked this quote:

But former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry spoke for many people around the world when he described the US decision to talk as "the most welcome flip-flop in recent diplomatic history".

The US is also looking at opening up a mini-Embassy in Iran.

The big question is whether or not a President McCain would continue to talk to Iran. His rhetoric indicates otherwise, but his rhetoric also indicates that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in charge of Iran's foreign policy when he isn't, so McCain's rhetoric really can't be trusted. But at the same time, John Judis thinks McCain has thrown off the yolk of realism and is now a pure neocon.

The Judis article includes this gem:

Like Bush, McCain looked into Putin's soul, but, where Bush saw a man "deeply committed to his country," McCain saw only devilry: "I looked into Putin's eyes and saw three things: a K and a G and a B." McCain has repeatedly displayed his contempt for the Russian. He has called Putin a "spoiled child" who exhibits "aberrational" behavior and a "totalitarian dictator who ... is trying to revert [to] the old Russian Empire." And he continues to see Russia entirely through the prism of Putin, dismissing his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, as "Putin's puppet."

He does realize he's going to have to talk to Medvedev once's he in office, right? Right?

Another IR note - Obama basically has a mini-State Dept. working for him. I'm glad to see that Samantha Power is still in contact with the campaign - A Problem From Hell is one of my favorite IR books. Also, it leaves open the possibility of having both an Undersecretary of State Power and an Undersecretary of State Slaughter simultaneously - a dream first expressed by Matt Yglesias, I believe.