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One was in the Midwest, the other in the far West. But in competing speeches today, John McCain and Barack Obama continued an intensifying debate, ratcheting up the rhetoric in their core dispute over the posture the U.S. should assume in international negotiations. McCain, venturing into Obama's hometown of Chicago to address a meeting of the National Restaurant Assn. (many of whose members are reliable Republicans, due to their opposition to minimum wage raises), said the Democrat "betrays the depth" of his "inexperience and reckless judgment" in his call for an American president to be willing to talk with opposing...

Reuters recently reported that Democrats were outraged by President Bush’s remarks: “America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon...” “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,” he...

John Bolton was on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes a couple of days ago to discuss the left's reaction to Bush's appeasement comments...

"Obama is the only major candidate who supports tough, direct, presidential diplomacy with Iran without preconditions." - Barackobama.com Barack Obama has enshrined the principle of unconditional summitry with Iran as one of the central foreign policy planks of his campaign for President. This despite recent efforts by Obama surrogates to confuse the electorate. The statement above is found on the campaign website of Senator Obama and reflects his view -- repeated a number of times by himself in debates and question and answer sessions -- that the thrust of his foreign policy will be personal Presidential engagement with tyrannical regimes...

At this point it’s reasonable to wonder how Jimmy Carter got elected governor of Georgia, let alone president of the United States. To witness him laying a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat, then schmoozing with Hamas in Damascus, is enough to make the sane among us recoil in disgust. On the very day that the peanut-farmer-who-became-president claimed to have scored a commitment of peace from Hamas, the terrorist thugs launched a rocket salvo at Israel, thus leading the former president to claim that at least he gallantly tried to bring about peace and stability to the Middle East....

The president makes a clumsy reference to Nazi Germany before Israeli lawmakers Monday, May 19, 2008 E xquisitely timed, this was not. Politicians and commentators do a disservice to history when they evoke the Third Reich to make political points, as if American policy questions can be equated to state-sponsored genocide. Such comparisons dull the uniqueness of the horrors visited upon Jews, gypsies and others during the dark years between Kristallnacht and the Allies' capture of Berlin. But there stood the POTUS, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, addressing that country's national parliament, groping...

President Bush’s implied attack on Barack Obama -- comparing those who would negotiate with terrorists and radicals to pre-World War II appeasers -- is being written off as mere heated political rhetoric. That is happening because the president, as is his wont, expressed a correct judgment in incomplete and thus incorrect terms. Speaking to the Israeli Knesset on May 15, the president 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...

Based on Barack Obama's hysterical, paranoid reaction to President Bush's remarks to the Israeli Knesset condemning the practice of appeasing terrorists, one might infer Obama was lying in wait for just such an opportunity to capture some national security street cred. After all, Democrats begin any presidential race with a national security credibility deficit, and this one should be no different, notwithstanding the unpopularity of the Iraq war. Democrats like to think they gained congressional seats in 2006 because of the war, but a better read is that Republicans did themselves in through reckless spending, scandals and other abandonment of...

The White House on Monday sent a scathing letter to NBC News, accusing the news network of “deceptively” editing an interview with President Bush on the issue of appeasement and Iran. At issue were remarks Bush made in front of Israel's parliament earlier this week. Specifically, White House counselor Ed Gillespie laments that the network edited the interview in a way that “is clearly intended to give viewers the impression that [Bush] agreed with [correspondent Richard Engel's] characterization of his remarks when he explicitly challenged it. “This deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible and...

George Bush seems to have really rattled Barack Obama and the Democratic Party with his speech yesterday in the Israeli Knesset. Rather than ignoring Bush’s argument against appeasement, or adopting it, Barack Obama has declared that Bush intended his denunciation of appeasement as an attack on his campaign, even though Bush never even mentioned the nationality of modern appeasers in his speech. Obama lashed out in a speech today, calling Bush’s rhetoric “appalling”: Barack Obama has called President Bush’s comments on appeasement “exactly the kind of appalling attack that’s divided our country and alienates us from the rest of the...

The problem Barack Obama is stuck with - whether he likes it or not, and he doesn't - is that during this campaign he did in fact say, and moreover did in fact say several times, that as President he would be entirely willing to sit down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other rogues with no preconditions whatsoever. That is why, for a second day Friday, the customarily unflappable Obama rather flappably chose to go on a tear over President Bush's remarks to the Israeli Knesset. He called those remarks "appalling" and "divisive" and much else, presenting himself as...

President Bush’s speech to the Israeli parliament sparked a series of denunciations from high ranking Democrats across the country. The President’s characterization of negotiation with terrorist regimes—like the one in Iran that has called for the destruction of Israel—as “a foolish delusion” and akin to Neville Chamberlain’s negotiations with Hitler appears to have touched a nerve in Democratic circles. Although Bush did not specifically name anyone in his speech, Democratic presidential front runner, Senator Barack Obama (Ill.) called Bush’s comments an “appalling attack on my ‘peace through concessions’ strategy for making America safe. Look, we can’t afford to get involved...

Democrats are rebuking President Bush for saying in his speech to the Knesset, here, that to “negotiate with terrorists and radicals” is “appeasement.” The Democrats took it as a slap at Barack Obama. What bothers me is the continual reference to Hitler and his National Socialists, particularly the British and French accommodation at the Munich Conference of 1938. The narrative we're given about Munich is entirely in hindsight. We know what kind of man Hitler was, and that he started World War II in Europe. From the view of 1938, what Hitler was demanding at Munich was not unreasonable, according...

Seattle Times editorial writer Bruce Ramsey, in an effort to defend Barack Obama against President Bush’s “appeasement” speech, actually ends up defending Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, and the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria): Bush, and His Use of ‘Appeasement’. Democrats are rebuking President Bush for saying in his speech to the Knesset, here, that to “negotiate with terrorists and radicals” is “appeasement.” The Democrats took it as a slap at Barack Obama. What bothers me is the continual reference to Hitler and his National Socialists, particularly the British and French accommodation at the Munich Conference of 1938. What Hitler was...

"That's enough. That – that's a show of disrespect to me." That was Barack Obama, a couple of weeks back, explaining why he was casting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright into outer darkness. It's one thing to wallow in "adolescent grandiosity" (as Scott Johnson of the Powerline Web site called it) when it's a family dispute between you and your pastor of 20 years. It's quite another to do so when it's the 60th anniversary celebrations of one of America's closest allies. President Bush was in Israel the other day and gave a speech to the Knesset. Its perspective was summed...

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama fired back at President Bush yesterday, accusing him of an "appalling attack" for suggesting that the Democratic presidential hopeful wanted to appease America's enemies. "Now, that's exactly the kind of appalling attack that's divided our country and that alienates us from the world," Obama said. "And that's why we need change in Washington. That's part of the reason why I'm running for president of the United States of America." Speaking before the Israeli Knesset earlier this week, Bush laced into those who believe that the United States should negotiate with leaders of terrorist states. Last summer,...

President Bush made a moving speech in Israel to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of that state. The New York Sun began its editorial "Bush's Covenant" this way: As far as political reactions go, it was a weird one. President Bush gave a beautiful and moving speech in the capital of Israel to give voice to America’s solidarity with the Jewish state. He reached back to Herzl and beyond, declaring that the establishment of the State of Israel was, as the president put it, “the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David —...

‘That’s enough. That — that’s a show of disrespect to me.” That was Barack Obama, a couple of weeks back, explaining why he was casting the Reverend Jeremiah Wright into outer darkness. It’s one thing to wallow in “adolescent grandiosity” (as Scott Johnson of “Powerline” called it) when it’s a family dispute between you and your pastor of 20 years. It’s quite another to do so when it’s the 60th-anniversary celebrations of one of America’s closest allies. Last week, President Bush was in Israel and gave a speech to the Knesset. Its perspective was summed up by his closing anecdote...

On Israel 60th Birthday Bush Tells Iran, Syria, No Appeasement On Terrorism By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----- May 17, 2008 ....... US President George W. Bush will leave Saudi Arabia this morning for Egypt after having visited Israel for its 60th birthday celebrations. Upon his historic arrival at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, Bush stated: "Israel is our strongest friend and ally in the Middle East. Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded. And our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We built strong democracies to protect the...

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds fired back that Obama’s retort was a “hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned.”

This general election campaign is getting off to a rollicking start. From McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: It was remarkable to see Barack Obama’s hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned. These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from Senator Obama. Senator Obama has pledged to unconditionally meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who pledges to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorists, arms America’s enemies in Iraq and pursues nuclear weapons. What would Senator Obama talk about with...

Democrats outraged by Bush "appeasement" remark. Bush said, “America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” And: “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,” he said. “We...

WATERTOWN, S.D. (AP) - Barack Obama has called President Bush's comments on appeasement "exactly the kind of appalling attack that's divided our country and alienates us from the rest of the world." Obama criticized Republican rival John McCain and President Bush for "dishonest and divisive" attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists. Obama strongly responded Friday to the comments Bush made in Israel on Thursday and McCain's subsequent words. Obama told a town hall meeting, "That's the kind of hypocrisy that we've been seeing in our foreign policy, the kind of fear-peddling, fear mongering that has...

How to Enrage a Democrat May 17, 2008 If nothing else, we now know what it takes to make a Democrat go nuts. One word: "appeasement." Notwithstanding that President Bush named no names in his speech to Israel's Knesset on Thursday, Barack Obama instantly called it a "false political attack." On him, of course. To House Speaker Nancy Pelosi it was "beneath the dignity of the office of the President." "Offensive and outrageous," thundered Hillary Clinton from somewhere in South Dakota, followed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "reckless and irresponsible." When the party's top four Democrats come roaring out...

The Popular Press is lined up outside the tuxedo rental places here in Your Nation's Capital, to get ready for what they all assume will be the Coronation of Sen. Barack Obama as the Nominee for President of the Democratic Party after the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. The endorsement of John Edwards yesterday, one assumes, also brings his eleven delegates with him. That would put Obama, according to CNN's count, at 1,910 delegates only 115 short of the 2,025 to have a majority. Kentucky (60 delegates) and Oregon (65 delegates) will hold their primaries on Tuesday. Assuming Obama and...

Today in Watertown, South Dakota, Barack Obama responded to comments about appeasement made by President Bush in the Israeli Knesset yesterday. He linked John McCain to Bush, saying that McCain "embraced" the comments in a conference call with bloggers.

Jerusalem - Jerusalem must be included in any negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authrity, stressed Sen. Barack Obama's Middle East adviser Daniel Kurtzer. "It will be impossible to make progress on serious peace talks without putting the future of Jerusalem on the table," Kurtzer said yesterday at a conference organized by the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute or JPPPI. Kutzer... was appointed as a primary Obama adviser on the Middle East earlier this year.

WASHINGTON - What is it about the word "appeasement" that got Barack Obama's ears ringing? Without once uttering the freshman anti-war senator's name, President Bush warned against negotiating with terrorists on the futile hope that a little more dialogue will turn these satanic beasts from their death pact to wipe Israel off the map and kill as many American men, women and children as possible. Obama, who has proposed meeting with the leaders of Iran, Syria and North Korea just as soon as he gets into the White House, heard his name somewhere in the president's speech and quickly issued...

The blowup over President Bush's remarks to Israel's parliament equating talks with rogue regimes to appeasement will be front and center another day. Barack Obama, who saw himself as the target of Bush's criticism, is expected to directly rebut the president later today at a campaign event in South Dakota. His top foreign policy adviser, Susan Rice, said this morning on MSNBC that Obama will deliver a "very vigorous response to what was an outrageous, unprecedented, and divisive attack from President Bush yesterday which was patently dishonest." She argued that Republican presidents, including Ronald Reagan, have talked to renegade countries....

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...

I just got off of another teleconference with John McCain. Here are my notes, not quotes, from the teleconference. McCain's Opening Statement I gave a speech this morning about how I would want America to look after my first term in office in 2013. I want people to see what I want to do. By 2013, I think we will have won in Iraq. There may be sporadic fighting or attacks by Jihadists, but the Iraqi military would have control of the country and American troops would be out of harm's way, even though we may still have our troops...

Barack Obama accused President Bush of "a false political attack" Thursday after Bush warned in Israel against appeasing terrorists — early salvos in a general election campaign that's already blazing even as Obama tries to sew up his party's nomination. The White House denied Obama was Bush's target, but the Democratic presidential contender said the Republican president's intent was clear. John McCain, the likely GOP nominee, jumped in, too, using the opportunity to argue that Obama was showing "naivete and inexperience and lack of judgment" in his willingness to meet with U.S. foes. ...As the workday began stateside, Bush gave...

So, Dubya goes before the Israel Knesset for their 60th Anniversary and criticizes appeasement: "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," the President said to the country's legislative body, "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...

Pelosi: Bush Comments 'beneath The Dignity Of The Office' May 15, 2008(The Politico) Democratic House leaders are calling out President Bush for a speech in Israel in which he seemed to suggest that Sen. Barack Obama wants the United States to "negotiate with terrorists." In his speech, Bush said: "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." The White House insists that Bush was "referring to a wide range of people, not any single person." But Obama's campaign says it appeared to be...

The presidential hopeful opposed the Iraq war and spoke sense about Iran, but expect business as usual on the Middle East Now that Barack Obama is almost certain to be the Democratic party’s nominee, in spite of Tuesday night’s expected Clinton victory in West Virginia, those who want to believe he may change America’s foreign policy should turn to his pre-campaign biography. I don’t mean the recent and obviously self-serving Audacity of Hope, but Dreams From My Father, which he wrote in his early 30s. In four tight pages, before the main section about the dilemmas of being a person...

........"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," the President said to the country's legislative body, "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."

WAHSINGTON, DC – Senator John Kerry made the following statement today, in response to President Bush’s partisan attacks from Israel’s Knesset. “President Bush is still playing the disgusting and dangerous political game Karl Rove perfected which is insulting to every American and disrespectful to our ally Israel. “George Bush should be making Israel secure, not slandering Barack Obama from the Knesset. If George Bush believes engagement with Iran is appeasement, the first thing he should do when he comes home is demand the resignation of his own Cabinet. Secretary Gates and Secretary Rice have both favored negotiations with Iran. “The...

Obama attacks Bush over Iran barb Mr Obama accused Mr Bush a "launching a political attack" Barack Obama has accused George W Bush of attacking him after the US president compared those in favour of talking to terrorists to Nazi appeasers. The White House has denied that the remarks - from a speech to the Israeli parliament - were aimed at Mr Obama. Mr Obama, who is the frontrunner to become the Democrats' presidential nominee, has argued in favour of negotiating with the Iranian regime. But he has ruled out talking to militant organisations like Hamas. 'False comfort' "Some...

Pump up the Carly Simon. President George W. Bush spoke to the Israeli Knesset on Thursday morning, to mark the nation’s 60th anniversary. The president said: 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 —...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama says President Bush launched a "false political attack" in remarks that appeared to imply the Democratic presidential candidate would appease dictators. Bush said in a speech to Israel's Knesset that "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 an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history." Obama responded in a statement. It is "sad" that Bush would use Israel's 60th anniversary "to...

And Democrats are outraged!You can usually tell when President Bush hits the bullseye of truth. Democrats erupt into childish fits. They don’t like it when the President points out how little they have learned from the lessons of history and how dangerously misguided liberal policies are.When President Bush told the Israeli Knesset “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,” Obama and friends went into attack mode.Obama made a statement stressing the need for tough diplomacy (talk). Nancy Pelosi (whose visit to Syria...

As Prepared for Delivery: Remarks by the President to Members of the Knesset The White House Office of the Press Secretary (Jerusalem) Shalom. Laura and I are thrilled to be back in Israel. We have been deeply moved by the celebrations of the past two days. And this afternoon, I am honored to stand before one of the world's great democratic assemblies and convey the wishes of the American people. It is a rare privilege for an American President to address the Knesset. Although the Prime Minister told me there is something even rarer – to have just one person...

Sen. Joe Biden, piling on to Democratic complaints about President Bush’s speech in Israel today: “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.” Speaking before the Knesset, Bush said that “some people” believe the United States “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," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused President Bush on Thursday of launching a "false political attack" with a comment about appeasing terrorists and radicals. The Illinois senator interpreted the remark as a slam against him but the White House denied that Bush's words were in any way directed at Obama, who has said as president he would be willing to personally meet with Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the United States has deemed rogue. In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as...

Text: Greeting to President Bush by Benjamin Netanyahu at Knesset http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=39281  Greeting to President George W. Bush The Knesset, May 14th, 2008 Benjamin Netanyahu, Head of the Opposition [Translation provided to IMRA by MK Netanyahu's office]Israel and the United States were founded on one pivotal idea - freedom: individual liberty, religious freedom and the desire to be a light unto the nations-along with the determination to resist those seeking to destroy those principles.The history of the Jewish People was deeply rooted in the creation of the United States. The first pioneers to land on the shores of America saw...