By Clive Crook

Published: July 5 2009 19:48 | Last updated: July 5 2009 19:48

Before the Iranian election, US opinion on Barack Obama's foreign policy divided on predictably partisan lines. Now the picture is more complicated.

Mr Obama's supporters admired his desire to restore US standing in the world and his willingness to talk "without preconditions"� to governments his predecessor despised. This would make all the difference, they believed. The new president's conservative and neoconservative critics rolled their eyes. They attacked Mr Obama's naive overtures to dictators, and his unwarranted apologies for supposed US sins.

Those critics see Iran as one more proof they were right. The administration spoke respectfully to Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad,...