Iran is becoming a central issue in the Democratic presidential race. It was a key point of contention in the Democratic debate earlier this week, and now Barack Obama is making it a key focus — giving a long interview with the New York Times on the issue.

Barack Obama

Obama is stressing the importance of talking to Iran without preconditions, insisting on behavior change — as opposed to regime change — and using both carrots and sticks to encourage that change in behavior.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, was the only Democratic presidential candidate to vote for a resolution declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. John Edwards, in Tuesday’s debate, called it a document that read as if it were written by the neocons.

“I mean, has anybody read this thing? I mean, it literally gave Bush and Cheney exactly what they wanted,” he said.

Here are several links for additional reading.

On Thursday Clinton was among 30 senators who sent a letter to President Bush stating that he did not have authority to initiate military action against Iran. The Huffington Post pointed out that Obama did not sign the letter. A couple hours later, Obama went a step further, introducing a resolution to the same effect. Here’s the story on Politically Connected. And here’s the Huffington Post’s report and here’s The Swamp’s report.

Here’s the NYT story about their interview with Obama. And here’s the transcript of the interview.

Last week, Clinton attacked Obama for attacking her over the Iran vote. In an e-mail she sent to Iowans, Clinton said that in 2006 Obama advocated the very position he’s now criticizing. The NYT’s Caucus wrote about this flap and reprinted Clinton’s e-mail.

What do you make of this clash between Clinton and Obama over Iran? Was Clinton right to vote for the resolution declaring the Guards a terrorist group? Do you agree with Obama’s approach to Iran. And how will the fracture over this issue affect the battle for the Democratic nomination?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards, Main, Presidential Democratic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.