branch, i think there will be some parties in iran that will be taking it and other parties that will just be seeing this as some sort of trick because this administration has also been very tough on iran, particularly as far as sanctions are concerned. steve? first of all, do you think the message will get to the person it s intended for? i think there is. i think there s an audience of one, with due respect to richard whom i adore. but i think ayatollah khamenei is the person barack obama was trying to reach with this. we ve seen in president ahmadinejad s speeches recently a relaxation of the commentary and the demonization of obama. obama and these actions they have imposed are squeezing iran, collapsed the oil export part of the economy of iran, and the iranian currency is in free fall. they re feeling a lot of pressure, but we don t know a lot about khamenei and how he sees the world. this was a line meant to reach him specifically, and i think that is this is part of movin
steve? first of all, do you think the message will get to the person it s intended for? i think there is. i think there s an audience of one, with due respect to richard whom i adore. but i think ayatollah khamenei is the person barack obama was trying to reach with this. we ve seen in president ahmadinejad s speeches recently a relaxation of the commentary and the demonization of obama. obama and these actions they have imposed are squeezing iran, collapsed the oil export part of the economy of iran, and the iranian currency is in free fall. they re feeling a lot of pressure, but we don t know a lot about khamenei and how he sees the world. this was a line meant to reach him specifically, and i think that is this is part of moving to what the new york times talked about before, which is the probability of bilateral negotiations between iran and the united states. well, you know, richard, here in the politics of america,
this might get through? i think i am i mean steve. i think richard is absolutely right. we don t know ultimately how they ll respond, and there s an awful lot about khamenei we don t know, but i think the white house realizes that before it could ever go down the road of much tougher either sanctions or even the very last resort of military course, that this is the kind of outreach that has to happen, and with ahmadinejad s speeches, i agree with richard he s not significant, but the fact he s relaxing his speeches means khamenei had him do that. he is a puppet. i think you have to talk a little before you start bombing. thank you, rich engel. we ll get back to you at some time and talk about your captivity. we had our worry beads out. thank you. as we should have. up next, yesterday was the president s big day, but didn t you get the idea that the vice president there he is you can t not laugh sometimes at joe biden was thinking about inauguration four years from
don t know, but i think the white house realizes that before it could ever go down the road of much tougher either sanctions or even the very last resort of military course, that this is the kind of outreach that has to happen, and with ahmadinejad s speeches, i agree with richard he s not significant, but the fact he s relaxing his speeches means khamenei had him do that. he is a puppet. i think you have to talk a little before you start bombing. thank you, rich engel. we ll get back to you at some time and talk about your captivity. we had our worry beads out. thank you. as we should have. up next, yesterday was the president s big day, but didn t you get the idea that the vice president there he is you can t not laugh sometimes at joe biden was thinking about inauguration four years from now? he worked that inaugural crowd like it was a ward in iowa and this was a caucus meeting. this is hardball, the place for politics. [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be eas
is really a philosophical argument, not your home turf, you cover the reality. but the philosophical argument, the neocons do seem to believe you must win. you can t end wars, you must win them. knowing it s terrain you cover, how do you win any final war? is it always about trying to find an alleviation from war? well, just to clarify a little bit on iran and then to talk about the winning of the war. sure. i think that there s ahmadinejad is almost irrelevant at this point. khamenei, the grand ayatollah, the supreme leader, is going to replace him with someone of his own. that s the next leader of iran, the next practical leader will come from his camp. and it s not clear that that camp is going to reach out to the obama administration, that that camp is interested in a peace offering even if the economy is in free fall. it might be convinced that its own survival is intrinsically linked with a conflict with the united states. so even if he s reaching out and