Posted on 05/16/2008 3:00:53 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If you look a few posts below, you will find the text of President Bush’s powerful and moving speech to the Knesset today. In the course of it, he says something very general:
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Bush here is arguing in very broad brush against a generally meliorist view of foreign policy — one, moreover, that is held by many people who work inside his own government. For some reason, people who work for the almost-certain nominee of the Democratic party have decided that Bush was attacking him. As Kate Phillips writes on the New York Times website:
In a telephone interview on CNN just a few minutes ago, Robert Gibbs, the communications director for Senator Barack Obama, called Mr. Bush’s remarks “astonishing” and an “unprecendented political attack on foreign soil.”
An “unprecedented attack on foreign soil”? That is completely deranged. Not only did Bush not mention Obama by name, it is doubtful he or his people were thinking about Obama. The argument that negotiating with terrorists is appeasement akin to Europe’s appeasement of Hitler is a standard view among hawks on the Right — decades old, dating back even before Barry Obama found the audacity to hope in the pews of Jeremiah Wright’s church. It is exactly the sort of thing a man with Bush’s politics would say in a speech before the Knesset, whether Obama had run for president or not.
The Obama campaign has even issued a statement on the matter in Obama’s name:
It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power - including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.
I’m not sure what this all says about Obama. Is this smart politics, getting his base riled up on his behalf? Is he trying to use Bush as a wedge to make the case to the Jewish community in the United States that the bad man in the White House is mischaracterizing him and therefore Jews should like him more? Is he trying, for the millionth time, to rule any criticism of himself out of reasonable bounds by complaining about something that isn’t even criticism of him?
Or is this just another example of Obama’s thin-skinned-ness?
I agree. I think most people where stunned when “the empty suit” decided to take offense at such utterly inoffensive remarks.
Obama-lama-ding-dong has met the enemy, and he is it.
If Obama and the rest of the ‘Rats on board the S.S. Appeasement are so upset about a speech Bush made to the Knesset in which the only person of historical reference mentioned was Hitler, what does this say about them?
They all wish they were that lone unidentified senator who in 1939, wished he had been able to “talk to Hitler”.
John McCain (who I still thoroughly despise), damn near has this election in the bag, unless he manages to lose it (which is not at all an impossibility).
Is he trying, for the millionth time, to rule any criticism of himself out of reasonable bounds by complaining about something that isn’t even criticism of him?
Barry has been extremely adept at avoiding questions or making it sound as they were attacks on him (which, of course, are all because he's ... shhhh ... black). I seriously think his strategy is to build a bubble around himself so that people will be afraid to question him and he will not be forced to reveal (a) his ignorance of most major issues, and (b) his actual horrible positions on most major issues.
I’d be quite conscious of ridicule to if I had ears like dumbo.
I was watching coverage of this on Fox News last night. During the couple of hours I was watching, there was not a single comment about the core of what Bush’ comment was or whether or not it was correct. The entire discussion was over whether or not the comment was addressed to Obama.
I see things like that, and I think we won’t get shaken out of our complacency until we get a good dose of reality. Periods of adversity bring out the best in people, and periods of prosperity bring out the slackers and the nutjobs.
I am thinking we are basically screwed for at least the next 8 years or so. Things are going to get very bad before they get better. At best, we are going to have socialists running COngress and the Presidency. At worst, the constant deficit spending and irresponsible fiscal policy (and this comes from Republicans as much as it comes from Democrats) catch up with us and we have another Great Depression.
I have confidence that our country will come through this, but things are likely to be harder for my kids than they were for my generation.
How do you know the left has gone too far with with their idolatry of the Obamamessiah?
When this picture accompanies an endorsement of him for President.
Rising from the sea like a mythical merman, with his loyal white steed behind him, the Left presents Barack Obama, fairy tale king!!
Christ Almighty. Do lefties really not see how ridiculous they have become with the Obama-mania? Seriously.
Hat tip: Ace of Spades
That is, DUMBO with DIVERSITY!
If you peek in a DU, you’ll see that this is exactly what has turned off so many Hillary voters to Obama and his supporters. They take offense at the comments that were not even intended as criticism. It’s going to be a long, whiny campaign if they keep it up.
Obama knows this is a real problem for him, hence the reaction. Though it wasn't directed specifically at him, he knows the shoe fits.
That’s especially funny when you realize Barack was the name of the “prophet” Muhammad’s (piss be upon him) horse!!
Obama and his followers continue to alienate a huge sector of our population. The presidency is McCain’s to lose. I’m just afraid he might be capable of doing so.
There are few things worse than McCain in the White House. Two of them are Hillary and Obama.
True. This remark was very general and could apply to Obama, Carter and any number of people world wide.
Obama is just generating attention. Just one more manufactured outrage.
I'm outraged by empty suits with big ears and big egos running for president.
The war in Iraq doesn't count as action in the world of Obama, I guess.
I joined the Navy in 76, got out in 80, went back in 82 and retired in 96. Yes, there was a distinct difference in the Navy betweent the Carter and Reagan.
This is an erroneous picture of the terrorist. Terrorists represent the ultimate depths of human depravity and will not stop until they have either subjugated their targets or have been destroyed themselves. This was true of Hitler and the Nazis and is true of the Islamo-facists today. Ignore the truth at the peril of your life and those of your neighbors.
His "popularity" will continue to rise, for a while. Like Dukakis, like Carter in 1980, he'll be 20 points ahead on Labor Day
But the election isn't ON Labor Day.
People will start to pay attention to the Obama downside, but not until late September/early October.
And then, the air will go out of his balloon, and the media will blame racism.
By November 2, people will forget they ever HEARD of him.
Barack Hussein Obama is black????
I heard a rumor that Kerry was in Vietnam too.
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