Obama's says he's "deeply troubled" by the violence in Iran, but can't comment on whether the election was a sham because we didn't have election monitors on the ground. More importantly, he seems to say, we're not going to let the Iranian government's violent crackdown keep us from negotiating with Iran:
"I have always felt that, as odious as I feel some of President Ahmadinejad's statements (are), as deep as the differences that exist between the United States and Iran on a range of core issues, that the use of tough hard headed diplomacy, diplomacy without illusions about Iran and the nature of the differences between our two countries, is critical when it comes to pursuing a core set of our national security interests. Specifically making sure that we are not seeing a nuclear arms race by Iran getting a nuclear Iran. ... We will continue to pursue a tough direct dialogue between our two countries and we'll see where it takes us."
Video via Allahpundit, who notes:
Fun fact: Whereas The One was "shocked and outraged" by the murder of George Tiller, the most he can muster here for mass beatings and cold-blooded killings across Iran is that he's "troubled." Make of it what you will.
