The media are hyping the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad / George W. Bush appearances at the United Nations like they're Don King promoting a boxing match.
Both leaders will address the UN General Assembly, but what's really whetting the appetites of the media is Kofi Annan's luncheon.
Will the Iranian president and President Bush meet? Face to face?
Will they go mano a mano?
Oh, the suspense!
From The New York Times:
Mr. Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the General Assembly just hours after Mr. Bush does today as the tense negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program continue.
The United States has refused to join those talks until Iran suspends its nuclear enrichment program, something it has refused to do. Mr. Bush said flatly on Friday that he would not meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad at the United Nations this week — or any other week, anywhere else — if the Iranian leader did not first comply with his demands.
Aides to Mr. Bush bristled yesterday at the notion that they were trying to avoid a chance run-in between Mr. Ahmadinejad and Mr. Bush in the United Nations hallways. Contending that they were giving no extra attention to the possible walking route of the Iranian delegation or the Iranian leader’s bathroom schedule, they said that to do so would only help to elevate the stature of a man they would rather diminish.
“This is not Khrushchev and Kennedy taking a measure of one another for the first time,” said an administration official who would speak only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak freely on the matter. “We’re talking about the former mayor of Tehran here.”
The official said it was possible that the two men could be in close proximity during a luncheon this afternoon that the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, is holding, and that “nobody’s going to body-block Ahmadinejad if he comes up with outstretched hand.”
White House officials are surprised that the media are focusing almost obsessively on a possible encounter between Ahmadinejad and Bush. They don't think it's a big deal.
Nevertheless, that doesn't stop The Times and others in the lib media from turning the UN gathering into a soap opera.
The atmosphere is certainly ripe for a showdown. Mr. Bush sees Mr. Ahmadinejad as leading a state that sponsors terrorism; Mr. Ahmadinejad has publicly challenged Mr. Bush to a televised debate.
Foreign policy analysts said they had mixed opinions about whether Mr. Ahmadinejad would want to press some sort of hallway confrontation. Edward Luttwak, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Affairs, said such a confrontation could be used to show a “defiance of the mighty.” But, he said, Mr. Ahmadinejad would risk an unflattering comparison with Mr. Bush, who is considerably taller.
When did The Times morph into People magazine?
Oooooh, Bush is taller. The vain Ahmadinejad wouldn't want to look like a shrimp next to him.
How lame!
There's enough real drama in the world without needing to manufacture it.
If Ahmadinejad and Bush do have a close encounter, it would help to have someone like Mike Wallace around, to act as an intermediary between the two leaders.
Then again, maybe not. I don't think that would work too well. It would put Ahmadinejad at an unfair advantage. He and Wallace seem to be pretty tight. Both strongly dislike for Bush.
I wonder if Katie Couric will tap Ahmadinejad, dear friend of CBS, to do one of those "free speech" segments for her sagging evening news broadcast.
Will Les Moonves offer Ahmadinejad a cameo on CSI?
Mahmoud in New York -- It's so thrilling!
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