Obama, Edwards, pursue flip-flop flap on Iran

By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff

There's a bit of a tizzy today in the Democratic primary race over comments Hillary Clinton made yesterday at a New Hampshire apple orchard about negotiating with Iran, but it might all be a big misunderstanding.

Clinton has called Barack Obama naive for saying that he would personally negotiate with notorious world leaders including Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. So the Associated Press flagged it yesterday when Clinton said, "I would engage in negotiations with Iran, with no conditions because we don't really understand how Iran works."

Obama and John Edwards' campaigns seized on the remarks. "So I’m not sure if any of us knows exactly where she stands on this," Obama said today in Des Moines. "But I can tell you this: when I am President of the United States, the American people and the world will always know where I stand."

"The American people deserve a president who will tell them the truth and offer straight answers, not flip-flops and political double-speak," Edwards communications director Chris Kofinis said in a statement.

However, Clinton seems guilty more of lack of specificity than flip-flopping. Her aides say she meant that her administration would negotiate with Iran, not that she herself would sit down with Ahmadinejad. And she's been saying that for some time.

"Senator Clinton did not say that the U.S. President should pre-commit to meetings with the leaders of Iran or other rogue states during the first year of her presidency," her communications director Howard Wolfson said in a statement. "Rather, Senator Clinton was clearly referring to diplomacy between nations as she has repeatedly and consistently done for months."