McCain has never supported talks with Iran at the Secretary of State level. So either McCain has massively shifted positions on Iran or he is completely misrepresenting his position on Iran.
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Did McCain just change his position on Iran?

John McCain and Barack Obama got into an argument tonight over HenryKissinger's position on Iran. During the debateMcCain said Obama's position was not the same as Kissinger's. McCainsaid that Kissinger "said that there could be secretary-level and lowerlevel meetings. I've always encouraged them."This is a correct characterization of Kissinger's position. And youcould say that this represents a slight differencebetween Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger. But McCain saying that "he has always" encouraged talks with Iran just isn't true. McCain has neversupported talks with Iran at the Secretary of State level. So either McCain has massively shifted positions on Iran or he is completely misrepresenting his position on Iran.

And the belief that somehow communications and positions andwillingness to sit down and have serious negotiations need to be donein a face to face fashion as Senator Obama wants to do, which thenenhances the prestige of a nation that's a sponsor of terrorists and isdirectly responsible for the deaths of brave young Americans, I thinkis an unacceptable position...

Kissinger:

"Well, I am in favor of negotiating with Iran.And one utility of negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of aMiddle East, of a stable Middle East, and our notion on nuclearproliferation at a high enough level so that they have to study it.And, therefore, I actually have preferred doing it at the secretary ofstate level so that we -- we know we're dealing with authentic..."Sesno: "Put at a very high level right out of the box?" Kissinger: "Initially,yes. And I always believed that the best way to begin a negotiation isto tell the other side exactly what you have in mind and what you are-- what the outcome is that you're trying to achieve so that they havesomething that they can react to. Now, the permanent membersof the Security Council, plus Japan and Germany, have all said nuclearweapons in Iran are unacceptable. They've never explained what theymean by this. So if we go into a negotiation, we ought to have a clearunderstanding of what is it we're trying to prevent. What is it goingto do if we can't achieve what we're talking about? But I do not believe that we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations.We ought, however, to be very clear about the content of negotiationsand work it out with other countries and with our own government."(CNN's "Live Event," 9/20/08)

The fact is that McCain has never said he was willing to talk to Iranat the Secretary of Statelevel. His statement tonight either represents a massive policy shift or represents a massive misrepresentation of McCain's position.

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