One government official said the Obama administration’s highly coordinated effort to talk about this attempted assassination plot among agencies, Cabinet officials, with everyone reading from talking points and the like, and notes that the assassination plot highlights an uncomfortable fact:

So far President Obama’s Iran strategy has not yet born any fruit.

All the U.N. Security Council resolutions, the quiet diplomacy, the efforts through the P5+1, the sanctions, the signals and such have meant success in getting the international community to take action, but in terns of Iran’s behavior: nada.

It could be argued with this incident that Iran is getting more aggressive, not less.

“It’s a long running frustration of this administration,” the official says, “and all their efforts haven’t yet had the impact of changing Iran.”

And in fact, the official notes, it may end up providing fodder for those who say the U.S. should have a more aggressive posture than we do now towards that country.

-Jake Tapper