How The Crazy Manifests

It's not just that John McCain is an ornery, angry, hot-tempered coot in theory, the kind of guy who won't look at his opponent in a public forum. In practice he would chart a course that is far more belligerent than the current regime:

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain met with the editorial board of the Denver Post. Discussing Iran, McCain took an extreme hard-line approach, saying the U.S. should “cut off” all ties to Iran, including “diplomatic” ties:

Let’s cut off all kinds of credit to ‘em, all kinds — diplomatic, trade, you name it. Basically isolate them. Because they are in violation of solemn agreements that they entered into, concerning nuclear weapons. And so I really believe that we could have an effect on Iranian behavior.

This mirrors the policy we had for five years against Iran, which did nothing to curb their behavior, as instead they strengthened their hand in the region. It was a failure, and the Bush Administration has acknowledged it to be a failure as they have sent high-level diplomats into talks in the region. Some of McCain's own advisers and just about every non-crazy American agree that diplomatic engagement is the only sane policy. What's more, Iran is dropping hints that they are ready to deal:

Iran would consider stopping sensitive uranium enrichment if guaranteed a supply of nuclear fuel from abroad, an Iranian official suggested on Thursday [...]

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog, said the reason why the Islamic Republic was enriching uranium was the lack of an legally binding international accord on security of fuel supply.

Asked if with such a deal Iran would shelve enrichment, he said that arrangement would be a first step but it would have to be implemented, and Iran would need to retain some enrichment as a contingency in case supplies were cut.

"This is a first step ..., then the next step is to see it really implemented," he told reporters at a Brussels conference.

In fact, Iran has been ready to deal since 2003, but Fourthbranch Cheney intercepted the communication and rejected it. We now have a Republican Presidential candidate willing to do that in public.