"Obama on Ahmadinejad: Meeting yes, Columbia no"

Ben Smith:

Asked repeatedly about Ahmadinejad (what else?) at the corrections officers' endorsement in New York, Obama offered the same answer as Hillary, if a bit less stridently:

"It’s not a choice I would have made," he said of Columbia University's invitation to the Iranian president.

"But we don’t’ need to be fearful of [Ahmadinejad]'s rantings," he said, adding that his commitment to meet the Iranian during the first year of his presidency.