Obama calls on HuffPost for Iran question

In a clearly coordinated exchange, President Obama called on the Huffington Post's Nico Pitney near the start of his press conference and requested a question directly from Iran.

He then noted that the site had solicited questions from people in the country "who were still courageous enough to be communicating online."

"Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad, and if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn't that a betrayal of the -- of what the demonstrators there are working towards?"

Reporters typically don't coordinate their questions for the president before press conferences. And it was a departure from White House protocol by calling on The Huffington Post second, in between the AP and Reuters.

CBS Radio's Mark Knoller, a veteran White House correspondent, said over Twitter it was "very unusual that Obama called on Huffington Post second, appearing to know the issue the reporter would ask about."

Meanwhile....

President Barack Obama's administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"There's no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.

"We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran," Kelly said. "We tried many years of isolation, and we're pursuing a different path now."

Barry, listen, invite them all you want, just quote TJ en camera....

The strongest reason for the people
to retain the right to keep and bear arms is,
as a last resort, to protect themselves
against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

JUST

ASK

NEDA