Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Senator Doth Protest too Much, Methinks

Obama says Bush falsely accuses him of appeasement

Here is the President's quote:

In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the 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 I could only have talked to Hitler, all 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."



And here is Senator Obama's reaction:


Obama responded with a statement, seizing on Bush's remarks even as it was unclear to whom the president was referring.


"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," Obama said in the statement his aides distributed. "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."


The White House said Bush's comment wasn't a reference to Obama.



What, does Obama think he's the only one who thinks talking will solve all the world's problems? Bush could have been referring to elite liberal opinion in general. He was in Israel, he could have been referring to foreign critics, esp. European. It does not automatically follow that he was talking about Obama.

But if Obama hears appeasement and automatically thinks the charge is aimed at himself, well maybe that's telling us a little something about Obama.

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