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Bully Pulpit

Bush observes out loud that Obama and other dems are pro-appeasement. CNN: 

JERUSALEM (CNN) – President Bush launched a sharp but veiled attack Thursday on Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats, suggesting they favor “appeasement” of terrorists in the same way some Western leaders appeased Hitler in the run-up to World War II.

The president did not name Obama or any other Democrat, but White House aides privately acknowledged the remarks were aimed at the presidential candidate and others in his party. Former President Jimmy Carter has called for talks with Hamas.

“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,” Bush said at Israel’s 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.

“We have heard this foolish delusion before,” Bush said in remarks to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. “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.”

The remarks seemed to be a not-so-subtle attempt to continue to raise doubts about Obama with Jewish Americans. Those doubts were earlier stoked by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential election, when he recently charged that Obama is the favored candidate of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which the U.S. government has listed as a terrorist group.

Obama last week called the Hamas allegation a “smear” and lashed out Thursday at Bush’s speech in Israel.

“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 a statement released to CNN by his campaign. “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….”

“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,” Obama’s statement said.

Obama favors “tough, direct presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions,” according to his Web site, “and is willing to meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe.” He does not favor talks with Hamas, which he has called a terrorist organization.

Maybe, but Hamas, Hezbollah and the mullahs sure favor an Obama presidency.

Some people might think Bush only does Obama favors by slamming him, due to certain issues related to Bush’s popularity and lack thereof. I don’t think so. He’s still president, and all the Democratic wishful thinking of the last four years hasn’t changed that. He’s also presiding over growing success in Iraq, highly positive multi-lateral moves toward peace in the Middle East, and what has remained an excessively moderate approach to blatant, murderous and extremely dangerous power moves by Iran. Whatever responses the pollsters might elicit, don’t think people don’t notice. Particularly the moderates who are concerned about national security and maintaining a strong, positive role in the world. It’s also not insignificant, as CNN notes, that he says this in Jerusalem at a time when Obama is courting American Jews, wary of someone who spent the last 20 years in the pews listening to a frothing anti-American Israel-basher.

MSNBC examines the history of the right’s “Nazi swipe.” Hey, if the jackboot fits on your neck, bear it.

Truth apparently hurts. Our Lord Chimpy really struck a nerve. Check this rant:

President Bush committed political treason today. Ouch. That guy holds a hard line. Imagine how he must have felt about Pelsoi meeting with Assad and Jimmy meeting with Hamas.

Biden: “Bullshit! Malarky!” Sounds like a rage problem. Imagine how incensed he must have been when Pelosi met with Assad and Jimmy met with Hamas.

Kerry: “What an irony!” No kidding. If he had been elected, we’d be four years into the appease-a-palooza by now. (Think Progress link, showing signs of progress, apparently recognizes who is more relevant and leads uncritically with Lieberman, “He got it exactly right.”)

Mojo in comments makes the point of the day: Political treason? WTF is that?

Topics: Bush, GWOT, pols

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:59 pm on Thursday, May 15, 2008

10 Responses to “Bully Pulpit”

1. Fatty Bolger Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

   Careful, Jules. Barack Obama demands that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone.

   Do not question Barack. You wouldn’t want to end up in an re-education camp, would you? For your own good, of course.

2. BloodthirstyLiberal Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

   What I loved, Jules, was that Bush mentioned no one by name, but all the usual suspects–Obama, Pelosi, Dean, Biden– screamed bloody murder.

   Touchy, aren’t we?

   Bloodthirsty Liberal

3. wf Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

   Come on, folks. You´re just bitter because your souls are broken. I know mine is!

4. mojo Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

   Political treason?

   When did GW swear loyalty to Mr. Obama? I musta missed that one.

5. RebeccaH Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

   Bush mentions no one by name, or even a particular party, but simply argues against appeasement, and right away the Dems start yelling that their candidate is being slammed. Sort of telling, don’t you think?

6. Please, Mr. President, Keep Talking | Comments from Left Field Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 6:46 pm

   [...] Voice, The New Republic, Ben Smith’s Blogs, DownWithTyranny!, Taylor Marsh, Salon, Hot Air, Jules Crittenden, Weekly Standard Blog, Macsmind, michellemalkin.com, The Strata-Sphere, Group News Blog, Fox News, [...]

7. bill_w Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

   I thought the ThinkProgress comments were a hoot. I have not seen BDS that thick in a while.

8. California Declares War on Marriage Says:
   May 16th, 2008 at 1:01 am

   [...] Obama gets upset when Bush comes out against appeasement. (Hat Tip: Jules Crittenden.) [...]

9. Baby M Says:
   May 16th, 2008 at 10:48 am

   What gets me is the blatant, raging antisemitism of the tolerant, compassionate liberal commenters at ThinkProgress:

   “Predictably, Liebewitz (Independently stupid-CT) is the first right out of the bat to open his reich-wing yap. You keep hiding behind the curtain of our party, you Nazi garbage.”

   “Bush and Rape Gurney Joe don’t see Israel as ‘another country’. That’s the problem. They see it as the 51st state.”

10. Strange How They’re Reacting As If Guilty…. « Tai-Chi Policy Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    [...] May 16, 2008 Posted by taoist in Democrats, Foreign Policy, History, Politics. trackback All over the blogosphere is the speech President Bush made to the Knesset concerning the dangers of appeasement, [...]

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