Election 2016: The First Signs of "Interesting"

As I write this, US president Barack Obama is speaking on "the Iran deal" at American University. The speech is, so far, a tour de force in which he has carefully explained the deal, completely demolished every objection to the deal except for the unmentioned correct one ("since Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program, no deal should be necessary to stop its nuclear weapons program -- just lift the sanctions and go about your business"), and given those who object to the deal a very limited set of options:

1. Get behind the deal; or
2. Be, and be publicly noticed as, an evil, anti-American whack job.

In theory, the speech was aimed at Congress. But we all know better, don't we? It's no coincidence that he scheduled this speech for the day before the first Republican presidential primary debate (and the "kids' table" forum for those not in Fox's reckoning of the top ten).

Seventeen (that's how many it is now, right?) candidates just got cornered like rats. Each of them has about 24 hours to choose between (1) and (2) before going live on national TV and answering questions about the choice.