Liberal Talk Radio

Or maybe it’s the equivalent of quickly filling in “Cs” in the remaining blank bubbles of your SAT answer sheet. Israel/Palestine — done:

President Bush announced an initiative on Monday to shore up the Palestinian president and to begin building a Palestinian state, signaling that his administration will use its remaining months to make a major push for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

North Korea — done:

The chief U.S. nuclear envoy expressed optimism after a day of meetings Tuesday with his North Korean counterpart, saying no new obstacles to progress on disarmament have emerged following Pyongyang’s shutdown of its sole operating reactor.

“I think we’re all in the same ballpark,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said after the meetings with Kim Kye Gwan ahead of nuclear talks in Beijing.

“We had a good discussion - at this point there are no show-stoppers,” he told reporters.

Hill repeated his desire to have the North disable its nuclear facilities by the end of the year, following its weekend shutdown.

“I laid out my view on how this could be done, and I think we had a good discussion on that basis,” he said.

Hill said he would meet Wednesday ahead of the formal resumption of six-nation negotiations with the Chinese hosts to gauge whether the proposed timeframe was feasible.

And now Iran — because Bush definitely doesn’t reward bad behavior or anything:

The United States is ready to hold new direct talks with Iran on the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, where the Bush administration accused Tehran of supporting Shia insurgents, the State Department said Tuesday.

“We think that given the situation in Iraq and given Iran’s continued behavior that is leading to further instability in Iraq, that it would be appropriate to have another face-to-face meeting,” spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

He said no date for the talks, which would be held in Baghdad, had yet been arranged.

Is a pattern emerging? All you have to do is wait out any President’s eight years and you’ll get whatever you want!