I've died and gone to diplomacy heaven. (Iran)

Obama sends a video message to Iran on Nowruz - the Persian New Year.

He said he seeks a relationship 'based on mutual respect' and this is a 'new day' between countries. I think the respect part of this statement will be particularly well received - respect is something Iran has always wanted (and at times deserved, like when they reached out to us after 9/11) from the US and on the international stage.

He even quoted a 13th Century Persian poet: "The Children of Adam are limbs of each other/Having been created of one essence" and ended by saying "Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak" Happy New Year in Farsi.

I mean it just doesn't get much better than that.

Iran's rejectionist response will only marginalize the hardliners in Iran, whereas Bush's policy united them behind a common cause, a common 'enemy.'

This argument is expressed by Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:

“What this message does is, it puts the hard-liners in a difficult position, because where the Bush administration united disparate Iranian political leaders against a common threat, what Obama is doing is accentuating the cleavages in Iran,” Mr. Sadjadpour said. “It makes the hard-liners look increasingly like they are the impediment.”