As Bush's disastrous tenure as president winds down, we've seen him devolve into a bizarre, almost court jester-like persona. He's really not even trying anymore, and the more obvious that has become, the further his approval ratings have continued to plummet. But perhaps in a new low for Bush, demonstrating that he truly has no shame and has absolutely no interest in salvaging any ounce of dignity from his final year in office -- and indeed that he intends to play bad cop in the general election -- Mr. 27%, on a trip to Israel to celebrate the nation's 60th anniversary, took the opportunity in his speech to liken Obama to Nazi appeasers.
"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."
And in case you were wondering if he was being ambiguous, while he may not have named Obama by name...
White House aides privately acknowledged the remarks were aimed at the presidential candidate and others in his party.
Imagine for a moment a Democratic president criticizing the foreign policy of a Republican presidential candidate on foreign soil, let alone going to Israel to draw a Nazi comparison. Oh, right, my bad, it's OK if you're a Republican...
But in case anyone feared Obama intends to let himself be swiftboated, Obama hit back fast.
"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.
As did Howard Dean:
"On the same day John McCain is talking about putting partisanship aside, the President launched a cheap political attack while on a state visit honoring the 60th anniversary of Israel, one of America's greatest allies. Bush's outrageous comments are an embarrassment to our country, not based in fact and bring us no closer to our goal of ending terrorist attacks against Israel and bringing peace to the region. If John McCain is really serious about being a different kind of Republican, he'll denounce these remarks in the strongest terms possible."
2008 is going to be ugly. Not only is Bush in his last throes -- desperate for relevancy to the point of not caring -- so is the entire Republican Party. This sort of attack, which harkens back to their 2004 campaign, is, of course, all they have and we can expect plenty more over the course of the rest of the year. They really don't seem to get that this shit doesn't work anymore. The country has moved on.
Update [2008-5-15 16:4:5 by Todd Beeton]:Joe Biden gets the prize for best response:
“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”“He is the guy who has weakened us,” he said. “He has increased the number of terrorists in the world. It is his policies that have produced this vulnerability that the U.S. has. It’s his [own] intelligence community [that] has pointed this out, not me.”
Biden noted that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have both suggested that the United States ought to find a way to talk more with its enemies.
"If he thinks this is appeasement, is he going to come back and fire his own cabinet?” Biden asked. “Is he going to fire Condi Rice?”
Message: we will not be swiftboated.
Update [2008-5-15 16:17:37 by Todd Beeton]:And Hillary Clinton responds, via CNN:
"Bush's comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous. In light of his failures in foreign policy, this is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address and certainly to use an important moment like the 60th anniversary of Israel to make a political point seems terribly misplaced."
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