John Kerry: President Bush's Despicable Attack on Barack Obama

[marmar]

from TPM Cafe:



President Bush's Despicable Attack on Barack Obama
By John Kerry - May 15, 2008, 2:28PM


I've been writing this week about the Republican leadership's insulting and destructive attempt to use outright lies to try to smear Barack Obama's steadfast commitment to Israel.

Well now President Bush joins the chorus of Republican attacks, pushing the Bush/McCain "argument" of smears and misleading attacks:

In a particularly sharp blast from halfway around the world, President Bush suggested Thursday that Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats are in favor of "appeasement" of terrorists in the same way U.S. leaders appeased Nazis in the run-up to World War II.

"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," said Bush, in what White House aides privately acknowledged was a reference to calls by Obama and other Democrats for the U.S. president to sit down for talks with leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to the Israeli 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."

Where to even start?

First, it's absolutely shameless that an American President would use a speech in front of a foreign government to launch such a petty political attack. President Bush has abused the dignity of the office in ways that make especially ironic his long ago pledge to "restore dignity and integrity to the Oval office."

Perhaps worse -- he's not even right on the facts, and he knows it. Like Representatives Boehner and Cantor, President Bush just makes up policies to attack. Barack Obama opposes negotiating with terrorists. And always has. This is just another example of the disingenuous habit of this administration to create "some people" whom they can argue against, strawman arguments that they can use in their disgusting political attacks.

No -- Barack Obama believes our government should engage the full range of diplomatic tools with other states in the region - from Syria to Iran to Pakistan - to further our foreign policy interests and fight against terrorism. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/15/president_bushs_despicable_att/

[beachmom]

1. John Kerry really has had Obama's back all year.

Great piece he wrote here.

[marmar]

3. Yep.....I'm a big admirer of Kerry.

I had to warm to him as the nominee in 2004, but really grew to like him. And he's always among the first Dems to defend his colleagues when they're under attack from right-wing freaks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. good, but I still wish

folks would give a little history lesson--you know, how "appeasement" means giving up territory, like when Chamberlain gave Hitler the Sudentenland. It doesn't mean negotiation. I believe it was Churchill who said "Jaw-jaw is better than war-war."

[politicasista]

4. K&R

:kick: