Opinions

The Post reports: “Two days of talks between Iran and six world powers over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program concluded late Thursday with an agreement to meet again in Moscow next month. There was no sign that any of the many differences over how to address world concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been bridged. But, according to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, it was a sign of progress that Iran had agreed to attend further talks.”

This is an utter farce. Iran is simply getting cover month by month to proceed with its weapons program. It is long past the point at which we should have declared both sanctions and the current round of negotiations a failure.

Former deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams tells me: “From press reports, it seems the Iranians are playing a game of chicken in the hope and expectation that the P5+1 will not allow the talks to collapse and will make concessions to avoid that happening. I hope that’s wrong, for we are playing from a position of strength. They have to know we will walk away from the table if need be. We should make demands and stick to them or this will degenerate into an endless ‘Iran process’ that drags on while their nuclear program progresses.”

Clear-headed Democrats are also fed up. Long-time pro-Israel Democrat and former AIPAC spokesman Josh Block e-mails me: “For over 10 years now Iran has been blatantly lying and covering up their pursuit of nuclear weapons capability. Five UNSC resolutions demand full suspension of enrichment activity and complete transparency, and Iran’s response has been to thumb their nose and flip the world the bird. Judging by the reports coming from Baghdad, Iran has no interest in ending their illicit nuclear activity, much of which is on military bases and in secret undeclared facilities.”

Block contends that all peaceful means of stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program are virtually exhausted. “As the Obama Administration has said there is a very narrow window for Iran to come clean, relinquish its enriched stockpiles, and comply with the demands of the international community. If they continue to stonewall and delay and blame the west, they can expect more crippling sanctions, and an increased likelihood of non-diplomatic means to retard their ability to achieve their nuclear ambitions.”

There is more bad new from Wisconsin for Big Labor bosses and Democrats. Reason magazine reports: “Gov. Scott Walker leads Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett 50-42 among those likely to vote in Wisconsin’s June 5 recall election, according to a new Reason-Rupe poll of 708 Wisconsin adults . . . The Reason-Rupe poll finds voters overwhelmingly support many of the key changes Gov. Walker and the legislature implemented on public sector pensions and health care last year. Reason-Rupe finds 72 percent favor the change requiring public sector workers to increase their pension contributions from less than 1 percent to 6 percent of their salaries. And 71 percent favor making government employees pay 12 percent of their own health care premiums instead of the previous 6 percent.”

Other polls show Walker leading by 5 or 12 points. The only question now seem to be whether Walker will win by a lot or a little. And then there will be the matter of whom to blame.

As we noted last week, “shiny object” stories are pushed by the Obama team and/or the media (yes, quite a lot of overlap there) to try to distract voters from the president’s record and more substantive issues. Cutting a classmate’s hair in high school is the quintessential “shiny object story” — meaningless, virulently anti-Romney, and revealing of the atrocious double standard in coverage of the candidates.

What story takes the cake this week? It is not Bain, and those who think it is don’t really grasp what “shiny object” stories are all about. Romney’s background is relevant, unlike the hair-cutting of 50 years ago. And it is a factor relevant to voters. Simply because it blew up in Obama’s face, was distorted and created havoc for Democrats doesn’t make it a ”shiny object” — although schadenfreude, certainly.

So the “shiny object” winner of the week is a good old stand-by: race. Here’s a prime example from the Atlantic: “Why did two in five Democratic voters in Kentucky and Arkansas vote against President Obama in their states’ primaries on Tuesday? Why did roughly the same portion of West Virginia Democrats do the same two weeks ago? Different theories have been floated. Maybe it was Obamacare? Maybe it was Obama’s environmental policies? After all, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin ran an ad in 2010 when he literally shot the bill. Maybe it has something to do with gay rights? These states are very culturally conservative. Maybe those factors played a role, but it’s hard to ignore one: race.”

As I reported Wednesday, there are plenty of good reasons to require a proper accounting of people designated as Palestinian “refugees” by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). And if any proof were needed of the vested interest in blurring the distinction between actual refugees and the generations removed from the events of 1946-49, in exaggerating the numbers claiming the “right of return” and in allowing the Palestinian Authority to get off the hook for providing services to Palestinians actually living in the West Bank, you need look no further than the mad lobbying scramble to defeat Republican Sen. Mark Kirk’s amendment today.

A senior Senate aide tells Right Turn that Jordanian officials just sent an e-mail to congressional staffers urging opposition to any amendment that could lead to undermining the UNRWA. (The fear that an actual accounting would deprive the UNRWA of U.S. taxpayer dollars is reason enough to support it.) The request reads: “Jordan urges the Senate to avoid any language which would directly or indirectly lead to undermining UNRWA. The embassy will be happy to further explain the Jordanian position, observations and reservations to your office and other Senate members, including the potential negative implications on Jordan, its economy and the peace efforts by any language that undermines or purports to undermine UNRWA.”

Jordan doesn’t have to care for a segment of its population generations removed from 1949 because the UNRWA does that — with our tax money.

That’s not all. Now the State Department is opposing the measure. You see, facts are power, and holding the United Nations and the Palestinian and Arab states responsible for their conduct (and keeping an eagle eye on taxpayer dollars) is so, well, unpleasant for the administration. Gosh, if Palestinians, their children, their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren didn’t live on the UN/U.S. dole . . . well, then the PA and surrounding Arab states where thy reside might be expected to DO something for these people.

Until Wednesday it was easy to overlook Mitt Romney’s theme of the week — education. With all the news coverage, you’d be forgiven for thinking the topic was Bain. But then Romney delivered an impressive speech. (If you are counting, this is the third solid outing after Liberty University and Iowa addresses.)

The setting was the Latino Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit, suggesting Romney is going to reach out to the Hispanic electorate with conservative policies (jobs, school choice) and not simply immigration reform.

He framed the issue: “Let’s not kid ourselves – we are in the midst of a National Education Emergency. The only reason we don’t hear more about it is because our economic troubles have taken our national attention away from the classroom. But if unemployment was where it should be and home values were going up, there is no question that the crisis in American education would be the great cause of this campaign.”