Iranian and U.S. officials are set to begin talks on the situation in Iraq, and Iran's role in either making it better or worse. The talks will be led by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Khalilzad, who speaks Farsi (the language of Iran). Arnaud de Borchgrave says he hopes the two countries will enter into secret talks to formulate some kind of deal averting a nuclear Iran. Obviously, he favors this approach because, as Richard Halloran points out, the options for dealing with a potentially nuclear-armed Iran are all bad. Any deal would have to include the Israelis (by itself, that would require secrecy). If a deal is possible, one has to hope that President Ahmadinejad isn't a nutcase, which isn't at all clear at this time.

The left-wing of the Democratic party is always the most powerful force when choosing their nominee (at least since 1972), but this year they seem to be even more influential, especially because of the rise of left-wing bloggers and other grass roots activists. The leading contenders for the '08 nomination have noticed, and are actively seeking left-wing support. But, in the wake of the Democratic power structure's reaction to the Feingold censure proposal, E.J. Dionne wonders if they can really play this game. Dean Barnett has read a new book written by the two leading leftist bloggers, and while he thinks they have diagnosed correctly the problems of the party, he doesn't think they have the solution. I think the biggest problem facing the democrats is that this is a center-right country. If they highlight their leftist base too brightly, they risk alienating swing voters, even though those voters may be greatly dissatisfied with GOP leadership in Congress and the White House.