By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

It should come as no surprise. Is anyone surprised? Good. French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to Iran today, quite loudly. Iran’s Foreign Minister replied Sarkozy’s remarks are political.

Reserve the Foreign Minister a seat in freshman Poli-Sci -101.

Of course it’s political. France threatens more sanctions. Obama must be pleased to have Sarkozy playing the tough cop today, right before the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh. Sarkozy made his remarks based upon his own intelligence service’s analysis earlier in the week.

Today the world receives an echo on this from the august body, the IAEA in Vienna…Iran has the ability to make a bomb. And right after that missile announcement this morning!

Could that have been Obama’s olive branch to Iran?

Has Obama been reading another chapter in “Thinking in Time: the Uses of History for Decision-Makers” by Neustadt and May (1986)? The course at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) must be shifting the syllabus today to discuss current events. This is big. Really big.

It’s all about timing isn’t it? Speaking of thinking in time…now what?