House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is pushing a plan to impose more sanctions on 'Iran. He says it will give the US more leverage in future talks, but he must know that this would derail talks and force Tehran to dig in and do something provocative for the benefit of the Revolutionary Guard.
It is a reckless ploy that would score all sorts of political points for the GOP but would damage the national interest of the United States.
Twisting the tail of a hated foreign enemy will win many points with the public and will help restore GOP unity. It will delight the NeoCons, who want to bomb Iran--even at the risk of war.
Obama's wants to defuse the Iranian nuke issue peacefully if at all possible. He will have to somehow resist the Cantor plan. Any resistance, no matter how well explained, will diminish his popularity.
With a tough election looming, he can expect many Democrats to back the Cantor effort.
If he has to surrender to th4e hawks and accept the new sanctions, the possibility of having to bomb Iran will grow.
The Republican hawks will take the blame for the victory while investigating Obama for any failures.
If the price of oil rises and the 'Straits of Hormuz are closed, the public will blame Obama.
It is an all win situation for the GOP in part because the public would never understand that new sanctions are a serious provocation. The media's way of attributing the best of intentions to the GOP will also be important.
No one should mention this, but there is a lot of soft racism about and it under cuts the president and out national interest.
Most of the time, the GOP shows unsurpassed expertise in PR and dominating the discussio0n. The shut-down and default ploys were the exception, but they did serve to activate more of the lunatic fringed.