It turns out that Iran does indeed want to be appeased:

A top Iranian official said Wednesday that of the two candidates in the US presidential race, Barack Obama seemed to be 'more rational' than his opponent John McCain. Ali Larijani spoke to reporters in the Bahraini capital of Manama during a visit to the small Gulf state he said was aimed at building closer relations with Iran's neighbors... Larijani, a powerful politician with close ties to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized the US for "exaggerating some minor issues between the countries of the region so that the differences appear to be insurmountable."

Don't get angry because Larijani is describing Iran's vaporization of six million Israeli Jews as a "minor issue" between Obama and the Islamic Republic. Get worried because he might have some pretty good reasons to believe he's right. Maybe he hasn't heard about the "strong sticks and strong carrots" that Obama will use to bring the regime to its knees.

Larijani is one of the so-called conservative pragmatists. His camp only wants to start nuclear wars with Israel because they think they can win. The other camp - the one that Ahmadinejad's in - wants to start nuclear wars because apocalypse seems like a pretty nifty idea. You can tell that the nutjobs are winning because Larijani himself was ousted as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and replaced with someone who... wait for it... want to bring about the end of the world. Which doesn't mean that Larijani isn't close to the Khamenei. He's extremely powerful. It just means that his enemies in Ahmadinejad's camp are even closer to the Supreme Leader.

So our foreign policy sophisticates - the ones who in the 90s said that Iranian moderates were winning and then in the 00s said that conservative pragmatists were win - they're idiots. Or maybe - more generously - they were confused by Iran's mixed signals:

Are you inclined to accept the Thug-In-Chief's protestations that Iran wants nuclear power solely for peaceful purposes? If so, can you kindly explain why the "Down Wiht Israel" balloon pictured above features a nuclear symbol?... Ahmadinejad also said Iran would not back down in the nuclear dispute with the West, despite the threat of a third round of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic Republic over its refusal to halt sensitive atomic work. "They should know that the Iranian nation will not retreat one iota from its nuclear rights," he told the crowd.

So negotiations probably won't work. But maybe Larijani can use his time with Obama to repeat his boasts about Iran's assistance to Sunni terrorists. Then not only would Obama be appeasing an intransigent US enemy - he'd also be learning something. He could even bring Biden along. Although, let's be honest...

References:
* Iran: Obama more rational than McCain [JPost]
* Dennis Ross: "I'm Endorsing Obama Because He'll Make Iran And Iran's Financial Backers Like Us" [MR]
* Idiots [MR]
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Untroubled By Undeniable Evidence That Hardliners Are Winning In Iran [MR]
* Leftist Sophistication Watch: Shiites And Sunnis Do Work Together, Iran Admits Funneling Money To Hamas [MR]
* Iranians burn Uncle Sam in effigy, vow not to back down on nukes [Spencer]
* Super! Iran's New Nuclear Negotiator Dedicated To Bringing About The End Of The World. Yes, Really. [MR]
* Biden: Russia, Middle East Enemies Will Exploit Obama's Inexperience (Plus: NYT Discovers Iran Is Training Iraqi Militias) [MR]

Previously:
* Helpful Reminder - We Don't Know Anything About US And/Or Israel Plans To Hit Iran
* Underwhelming Global Outrage As Iran Enforces New "You Convert From Islam, You Die" Law
* Iran: We're Going To Preemptively Attack Israel