Senator Thompson hit exactly the right note on Iran on this morning's Meet The Press, and Tim Russert did a great job in giving the looming confrontation with Iran the time it deserves.

Any American who doesn't understand Thompson's reference to the "12th Imam" should blame the MSM for a fundamental failure to report the crucial facts about the mullahs and their operatives, their ambitions and their ideology.

Senator Thompson joins Mayor Giuliani and Governor Romney in talking bluntly about the central issue in the world right now.  Thus the top two and number three in the GOP race are all serious about the most serious issue, and not one Democratic candidate is.

Frank Rich worries that the election of 2008 will turn on Iran.  He's right to worry because if it does, no Democrat will win because no Democrat is deling candidly with the prospect of this terrorist regime acquiring the nukes it is so obviously pursuing.

Sane Democrats understand this issue.  From my interview with The Council on Foreign Relations' Walter Russell Mead:

HH: Does the United States and its Western allies allow Iran to go critical, or do they bomb it if necessary? 

WRM: I think we have to continue on the path we’re on with Iran, which is to tighten the screws, build the strongest possible international coalition, and should we reach a point where we have to make a choice between a nuclear Iran or some kind of military action, then I think it’s pretty clear that a military action is where we’d have to go.  

 

No Democratic candidate believes this and has said so, and thus no Democrat should be president.