Somehow, the American contingent negotiating with the Iranians missed a very important aspect of America’s interest in recreating Iran as a friend: getting four Americans, held by the Iranians on trumped-up charges, including one WaPo reporter, the hell out of the country before they’re “convicted.” Yesterday, when Major Garrett dared to ask the President why he’d managed to eek out a terrible deal with the Iranians while ignoring his own countrymen, President Obama threw a small, public tantrum, like a two year old who has just been told he can’t have an entire box of Swedish Fish for dinner, claiming that he couldn’t negotiate for prisoners while also negotiating over nukes. 

Not really true, but okay.

Some have speculated that the Administration is holding off the hostage negotiations until they can get something bigger than Iran’s nuclear weapons program on the table. One or two have even floated that the hostages are ultimately part of the deal, but the Americans are going to let the Iranians get good press from releasing them on their own.  Others just figure Obama never considered the hostages part of the system at all, since he’s positioned the deal as the only alternative to war. That’s convenient for him, I suppose, but inconvenient in practice: Iran is already active in a bunch of other wars. It’s Iran.

Anyway, Major Garrett responded to his public chiding last night, saying that he’s pretty sure he touched a nerve. And that was the point.

Unfortunately for Garrett, the rest of the media wasn’t as enamored of his defiance. But he still got his answer.