Crocodiles and Pontius Pilate: The Iran Debate’s Descent

“I can’t run again,” President Barack Obama said yesterday, speaking in Mandela Hall at the African Union headquarters, in Addis Ababa. “I actually think I’m a pretty good President—I think if I ran I could win.” Obama, at the end of what is likely to be his final trip to the continent as President, was addressing the habit that too many African leaders have of making themselves leaders for life. His message was that this was a bad idea, even if they, too, thought they were pretty good Presidents. But he may also have been thinking about tremors of the 2016 Presidential race, which had been making their way across the ocean. As yet, none of the Republican contenders has managed to look at once substantial, serious, and sane. In some cases (Trump), none of these attributes has been visible. And then there was the rush of alarming debate on the nuclear deal that the Obama Administration had concluded with Iran. This is where Mike Huckabee came in.