On “Face the Nation” he made host\u00a0Bob Schieffer sound like the tired TV talking head he is.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>A transcript<\/span><\/strong><\/a> <\/span>reveals this exchange on the subject of Iran:<\/span><\/p>\n Schieffer: Am I correct that your idea of how to discourage Iran from building nuclear weapons is to be nicer to Iran\u2019s leaders? Is that correct?<\/span><\/p>\n Paul: No, I think we have 12,000 diplomats \u2026 I\u2019m suggesting that maybe we ought to use some of them but just think of how we prevented a nuclear war with the Soviets when the Soviet missiles were put in Cuba. We didn\u2019t say we\u2019re going to attack you. Kennedy and Khrushchev talked and they made a deal. You take your weapons out of Cuba, we\u2019ll take them out of Turkey. That\u2019s the kind of talk I want. I think the greatest danger now is for us to overreact and this is what I\u2019m fearful of. Iran doesn\u2019t have a bomb. There\u2019s no proof, regardless of this recent report. And for us to overreact and to talk about bombing Iran, that\u2019s much more dangerous. We\u2019ve gotten the Libyans to get rid of their nuclear power and nuclear weapons and look at what happened to them. So we\u2019ve got to understand that.<\/span><\/p>\n Schieffer: Mr. Paul I have to interrupt for a second. No one has suggested in the US government that we\u2019re going to bomb Iran. What they\u2019ve said is that we\u2019re going to impose very tough sanctions. You are against sanctions on Iran. Is that correct?<\/span><\/p>\n Paul: Yes because sanctions are the initial step to war. I was opposed from all the sanctions for ten years and the bombing that was occurring with Iraq because I said it would lead to war, but if you say nobody\u2019s suggesting it, why don\u2019t you listen to the debates? Listen to the other candidates.<\/span><\/p>\n Schieffer: Mr. Paul, may I correct you? I am listening to the debates. You know there\u2019ve been some candidates who\u2019ve talked about that, including Mr. Romney. The United States government has not said we\u2019re going to bomb Iran.<\/span><\/p>\n Paul: No, obviously they haven\u2019t said that but the implication is that nothing is off the table.<\/span><\/p>\n Schieffer: Well yes alright. Let\u2019s move on then.<\/span><\/p>\n No, let’s not move on. This is a fascinating exchange. Schieffer’s knee-jerk defense of the\u00a0Beltway consensus\u00a0on Iran tells you all you need to know about the Beltway crowd. There really is no difference between the parties when it comes to the embrace of the liberal internationalist approach to foreign policy.<\/span><\/p>\n And observe Schieffer’s tactics. Note the\u00a0way in which Schieffer tries to dumb down\u00a0 Paul’s views\u00a0to the low level of\u00a0 television news, such as when he\u00a0asserts Paul is urging that the U.S. \u00a0“be nicer to Iran\u2019s leaders.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n