Are you completely dismissing everyone that attended the dinner as completely naive to the dog and pony show that is put on by all world leaders whenever a stage is available to them? The author of the article saw easily the marketing going on. Are you insinuating that the rest of the press in attendance just sat there treating the man as a rock star?

Just perhaps Tom, the folks at the dinner were using their experience to develop a deeper understanding of the guy based upon the show he was putting on. I often learn much about a person if they're overly smarmy at an initial meeting.

So I take it by your revulsion that your opinion is that Ahmadinejad should be granted no public stage at all outside of his own country. Isn't that an odd idea in that we're getting this free education about a possible adversary without having to penetrate his own society to do it? Obviously you need input from both sources to get a complete picture but I welcome whatever look I get at people even if it's through rose colored glasses. One can easily see the filtering if they have any knowledge of human nature.

Art