Appeasement - Part Two

George W. Bush, in probably his most outrageous comments since stealing the Presidency, compared sitting down to negotiate with an elected party leader of another country to the "appeasement" of the Nazis in 1938, when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gave Hitler half of Czechoslovakia in the hopes that it would deter Hitler and his Nazi Party from further invasion. Not only did he say it, but he said it to the Isreali governing body as a diplomat representing the United States.

If Bush actually knows any history at all, then this is where he would be an expert as his family was involved with the rise of Nazi Germany through Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush. But I digress.

The backlash of negative responses that this idiotic statement has garnered would make one realize that the Emperor with no Clothes had really stepped in it big time, don't you think? Well... if you think. John McCain, however, does not think.

Asked if he thought Mr. Obama was an appeaser, Mr. McCain sidestepped the question and said: “I think that Barack Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terrorism, that is responsible for the killing of brave young Americans, that wants to wipe Israel off the map, who denies the Holocaust. That’s what I think Senator Obama ought to explain to the American people.”

Well, if McCain wants an answer, Mr. Obama will be happy to oblige, and he didn't waste much time responding to Bush and McSame at a gathering in Watertown, South Dakota this morning:




It's funny how McCain would be "Hamas' worst nightmare" in 2008 while running for the Republican nomination, yet he sang a remarkably different tune in 2006:

RUBIN: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCAIN: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

Sounds like another flip-flop flim-flam from the Double Talk Express that the McCainstream Media probably wouldn't have reported a few months back. But what has happened over the last twenty-four hours seems to be a watershed moment for politics at present, for although Hillary Clinton has stated her objections to Bush's inane comments, the talk has been Bush-McCain-Obama pretty much nonstop since this story broke, leaving Clinton in the dust. And now that the conversation has shifted to a two person race, perhaps there'll be a little more scrutiny from the McCainstream Media toward its Maverick. One can only hope.


The talk has finally evolved to Obama and McCain in the general election, and who Obama would choose as his VP running mate (no talk of Clinton's VP pick) and if the conversation remains there, it's probably the only good to come out of the latest embarrassment from our president while on the world stage.


UPDATE (5/17/08 , 9am): Mark Green: "Appeasement": Guilt-By-Analogy... When Guilt-By-Association Isn't Enough

"...It was bad enough when McCain tried to link Hamas and Obama because Hamas said it preferred Obama. And if the Klan endorsed McCain because he wasn't the black guy, would McCain have a problem if someone said that McCain and the Klan are one and the same?

...We've seen this movie before. Whenever conservatives can't win an argument on the merits, they attack some real or perceived enemy as Hitler. So Ho Chi Mihn was Hitler. bin Ladin was Hitler. Ahmadinejad was Hitler. Of course Hussein was Hitler. And anyone who does something to try to resolve conflict short of more war is Neville Chamberlain.

...Was Israel -- with far more experience and its survival at stake in dealing with war and terrorism -- wrong to neogtiate with former enemy Egypt, with successful result...wrong to negotiate with former enemy Jordan, with successful result...

...Take Iran and Ahmadinejad, the newest "Hitler." Iran can't stop laughing at Bush's foreign policy. He attacks its long-time enemy Iraq, allowing Iran's Shia majority to have far more influence in a Shia-majority Iraqi government. And Bush at the same time provides an unpopular Iranian government with a convenient outside enemy to rally nationalistic support to its side. Which is why Secretary Robert Gates himself has advocated talking more to Iran. What an appeaser!"