I read the speeches the American and Iranian presidents gave at the United Nations on Thursday, and my conclusion is that on both counts we have real reason to feel good but also to worry for the wellbeing of the Middle East and our wider world. Barack Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are very different personalities, but they converge in their fascinating insistence on mixing sensible approaches to some issues with a lack of credibility that is politically numbing to the point of nearly neutralizing them as serious leaders.
