GOP calls Obama timid as he seeks footing in Iran

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama stuck to his carefully tailored response to Iran's internal crisis Sunday despite pressure from Republican critics, as he continued to speak up for protesters' rights without making specific demands on Iran's hard-line leaders.

"The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States," Obama said in an interview released Sunday. "We shouldn't be playing into that."

The president spoke Friday during an interview with CBS News' Harry Smith. It will be broadcast today on "The Early Show."

Obama's measured statements so far attempt to speak up for human rights while preserving U.S. options and lessening the chance that he becomes a scapegoat for the cleric-led government, which has blamed the West for stirring up street protests that turned into bloody clashes with police and militia.

Obama kept a public silence Sunday, although a spokesman said he discussed Iran with foreign policy advisers in the Oval Office for more than 30 minutes. He later went golfing in Virginia.

The White House did not book any surrogates on the Sunday talk shows to defend or explain the administration's approach. Republicans used their broadcast appearances to call the president timid or feckless, while the Democrat who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee said the U.S. had no hand in the disputed election.

Like other Democrats who spoke Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein backed the president's approach.

"It is very crucial as I see that we not have our fingerprints on this," she said, "that this really be … truly inspired by the Iranian people. We don't know where this goes."

A day earlier, Obama invoked the American civil rights struggle to condemn violence against demonstrators, some of whom have carried signs in English asking, "Where is My Vote?"

It was his strongest statement on what has become the most significant challenge to Iran's ruling structure since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago, but it stopped short of demanding a recount or new election, as many of the demonstrators seek.

He avoided mentioning either incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or his principal challenger by name, and said nothing about his oft-repeated campaign promise of a fresh start in diplomatic talks with the main U.S. adversary in the Middle East.