Hey @TheIranDeal, I have questions

This week, a bunch of journalists, foreign policy wonks, and assorted pundits received an email from the White House that began with the legendary words, “Hey, I’m Ben Rhodes, a Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. For the past few years, I’ve been working closely with America’s negotiating team, which was tasked with finding a way to achieve a diplomatic resolution that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Don’t you just love that “Hey,” greeting? So informal, so accessible, so confident, so quintessentially Obaman. And it didn’t end there.

“Last week,” Rhodes continued, “after two years of tough negotiations, our team along with our international partners achieved just that.”

Perhaps anticipating a chorus of “Oh no, you didn’t,” Rhodes added that “it’s important that everyone here and around the world understands exactly what’s in it and how it’ll work.” And then came this assurance: “This is a strong deal, with significant constraints on Iran’s nuclear program, and unprecedented access to Iranian nuclear facilities—including 24/7, continuous monitoring.”

So what do you do if you still have doubts? The purpose of the round-robin email from Rhodes was to announce the latest PR initiative from the White House, in the form of a Twitter feed with the handle @TheIranDeal. (If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done the same, the Obama administration and its sympathizers would now all be whining about “hasbara,” the Hebrew word for public diplomacy, but let’s leave that aside for now.)