A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO SANCTIONS FOR IRAN - AT 7:09 A.M. ET:  Barack Obama, who comes off as a minor league player in the major leagues, has been hawking his Iran policy, saying that if Iran doesn't come through by...well, who cares about dates...there will be consequences!  Big consequences!  Like...well...like, sanctions.  Yeah, that's it.  Sanctions. 

And Hillary, the secretary of state who has a desk and a car, and little else, talks even tougher.  Tough sanctions!  Real tough!  There's talk of cutting off Iran's gasoline supply.  But now the French foreign minister, who was supposed to be on our side on this, is making it clear that he has doubts.  If he has doubts, imagine the stand the Russians and Chinese will take.  From The New York Times:

UNITED NATIONS — Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France said Monday that he had deep misgivings about blocking shipments of refined fuel to Iran, one of the sanctions being weighed by the Obama administration if the Iranian government does not negotiate on its nuclear program.

“I think this is a bit dangerous,” Mr. Kouchner said in an interview here, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly. A blockade would harm the Iranian people, he said, “and mainly poor people.”

“This is a choice; we have to study it also,” he said. “But it is not my personal favorite at all.”

The fact that an allied foreign minister could make such a statement shows how little influence Obama really has.  No one takes him seriously.  Oh yeah, he's a "rock star," as they say.  But rock stars are entertainers, not statesmen. 

Diplomats hated Bush.  He didn't tell them what they wanted to hear.  I suspect, privately, they laugh at Obama.

French officials cautioned later that the government had not decided its position on such a measure. It was not clear whether President Nicolas Sarkozy of France shared Mr. Kouchner’s reservations. But if France is to come out against fuel sanctions, analysts said, they will most likely be off the table as an option for increasing the pressure on Iran.

Whatever is left of our Iran policy may depend on France.  National decline we're supposed to believe in.

September 22, 2009