This in response to a question about Ahmadinejad's "legitimacy," effortlessly linking the two in a way that an administration less committed to appeasement would struggle over. The video is below via Hot Air via Breitbart, but don't miss the timing of this cravenness: on the eve of Ahmadinejad's inauguration, during the few hours when Iranian dissidents are literally sitting on their couches deciding whether it's worth risking their lives:

Iranian opposition groups have called for a new round of street demonstrations Wednesday to coincide with the inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term. The country's reform movement says it plans to demonstrate outside parliament in Tehran, to protest the swearing-in of Mr. Ahmadinejad. A massive security presence is expected outside parliament and in other areas of the capital during the inauguration ceremony.

Given how Obama once compared Iranian nukes to our own stockpile, I suppose we should be grateful that Gibbs didn't go the extra step. "Ahmadinejad is as much the legitimately elected President of Iran as President Obama is the legitimately elected President of the United States, and the President hopes the two of them can sit down and bond over their shared electedness." Although I guess that would get in the way of the MSM meme which insists that Bush is Ahmadinejad.

Anyway, here's Gibbs:

Don't worry. Once Obama's obsequiousness convinces Iran to give up their nuclear program, people will hardly remember this stain on the US's historical legacy. Unless Iran's serious about not negotiating, in which case this administration would come off as veritably Chamberlainesque. Except Chamberlain didn't have his own example as a warning.

References and previously after the jump...