The Short Leader of Iran Speaks to Mike

Mike Wallace, 88, has retired but just scored an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Here’s some of what he noticed about this villianized leader.

“He’s actually, in a strange way, he’s a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way,” Wallace said. “He’s very, very short but he’s comfortable in his own skin.”

Despite problems with translation — there was only one translator for a time during the interview — Wallace said Ahmadinejad was patient.

“He couldn’t have been more accomodating. He had a good time doing the interview,” Wallace said. And he believes that it was Ahmadinejad’s idea to do the interview. He acknowledged that he had become a much-desired interview subject but told the veteran CBS journalist that he remembered a discussion the two had over a year ago when Ahmadinejad was in New York.

“I don’t know if you remember this or not but you and I had a talk over breakfast at the United Nations,” Ahmadinejad told Wallace. “Do you remember that you asked me at the time if I would sit down with you … and I said by all means, let’s do it.” Wallace said he was surprised that Ahmadinejad had remembered.

As for retiring, Wallace said that he isn’t having a happy retirement because he likes the job. He does acknowledge, particularly in this last voyage, that the airplane travel is “interminable” and the major reason why he wanted to retire in the first place. But he said there were other stories that he wanted to do.

“When you love what you do, it’s not work,” Wallace said.