The debate between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has now shifted to if, when, and under what circumstances would either one meet with so-called “dictators” of other nations (read leaders of enemy states of the U.S.) such as Hugo Chavez and the leadership of Cuba. The Clinton camp is accusing the Obama camp of flip-flopping on its position regarding meeting with these leaders (also Iran, North Korea, Syria).

The sharpest dispute in the Democratic presidential race for the 2008 election began at a CNN/YouTube debate last Monday when Obama, a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois, said he would be willing to meet leaders of the five countries without preconditions in his first year as president.The Clinton campaign said Obama appeared to change his position when in an interview published on Thursday he said he would be willing to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez but only “under certain conditions.”

You could almost hear Clinton and her camp sharpen their claws to attack on what is essentially a non-issue (I mean really does anyone expect either one of these to sit down with Hugo or Fidel/Raul?). Clinton and her camp say that preconditions are needed for such a meeting, which would additionally need to be preceded by low-level diplomacy.

So much for that olive branch.

Via / Yahoo!