Ahmadinejad at the UN
Photo: Jason DeCrow/APYou wouldn't think they need it, but for the world's presidents and prime ministers the annual meeting of the UN general assembly is an excellent chance to strut their stuff on a global stage.
George Bush gets to make the case for the US's democratic mission in the Middle East and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can accuse the US and Britain of being lawbreakers.
As if that wasn't enough for him, the New York Times reports on the Iranian president's confrontational meeting with a US foreign policy thinktank. By the sound of things, he seemed to enjoy it.
"He entered a hotel conference room on the East Side with a jaunty smile, a wave and an air of supreme confidence.
"Mr Ahmadinejad [...] squared off with the nation's foreign policy establishment, parrying questions for an hour and three-quarters with two dozen members of the Council on Foreign Relations then ending the evening by asking whether they were simply shills for the Bush administration."
Then there are the jibes. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who once told Tony Blair to go to hell, is a veteran here. He used his slot at the UN to announce he could still "smell sulphur" left behind by the "devil" (which is what he sometimes calls Mr Bush).
If macho name-calling with a diplomatic twist is your thing, we've assembled a quiz on some of the finest political insults of recent times. Some thanks, Oscar-style, are necessary here - it simply would not have been possible without the contributions of Jacques Chirac, Dick Cheney and Silvio Berlusconi. Try it and see how you do. And feel free to recount great political slanging matches in the comments below.
