Digby:

Back in 2007 and 2008 when President Obama was battling it out for the Democratic nomination, this was what I thought he was running to do. All that got lost in the sturm und drang over health care and the ongoing economic crisis, neither of which I ever believed were Obama's strong suit... This big picture, nuclear disarmament, reorienting of the middle east alliances was the passion of the man who'd spent time overseas and had the global perspective since he was a kid. That was where I thought the hope 'n change had a potential to really happen.

I've been a harsh critic of this administration on any number of fronts, including national security and foreign policy where the president has seemed to concentrate all his energies on counter-productive covert warfare. But the two big things they've done in the 2nd term are truly hopeful signs of some real progress in this ugly old world: backing down on Syria and this opening up with Iran. They are both bold decisions taken outside of our normal national security framework and are pretty much begging for hysterical criticism from some of the most powerful American allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, not to mention the local American lunatics.

Unlike Digby, i can't claim that i thought all along that this was one of Obama's main goals for his presidency. But i do recall the repeated "criticism" during the 2008 debates that Obama would agree to meet with Iran without "pre-conditions". And there's no doubt that his willingness to negotiate (along with changes in Iran) are a major factor here.

To see this continue, however, the 2016 Democratic primaries are going to be very important. Not all Democrats are happy with this preliminary deal, and i'm not so sure Hillary Clinton would be willing to follow Obama and Kerry's path on this.