You don't have to like the Obama Administration's MidEast policies to appreciate the significance of what it's doing with Iran. In the most in-depth examination of the subject to date, Mitchell Plitnick explains exactly what the President is up to, and what his efforts mean for both America's regional allies (Israel and Saudi Arabia) as well as domestically. Plitnick isn't necessarily optimistic about Obama succeeding. Nonetheless, he reckons, the effort marks a sea change in US, as well as Western policy efforts, in the Middle East. The accompanying photography, documenting Eisenhower's 1959 visit to Iran, are a fascinating counterpoint, to a very different time in Iranian-American relations.