Obama Drops Daisy-Cutter On Bush and McCain For ‘Appeasement’ Comment
posted in Politics, News & Events, MSNBC Videos | | | View blog reactions | Print This PostIn response to Bush’s “Appeasement” statement yesterday, and John McSame’s pilling on; Obama has done exactly what I’ve been saying he should do. Now I may believe that he might actually go after the republicans instead of soft peddling like he’s done with Clinton.
Today in his response he called Bush and McCain “disingenuous”, “hypocritical”, “naive”, “irresponsible”, “dishonest”; and said that McCain hasn’t offered “one substantial” foreign policy difference between himself and Bush.
Some other Texans criticized an American elected official (Bush) on foreign soil and were scorched for it by the right; and they were just some pop singers named the Dixie Chicks at a concert. I’m waiting to hear the right come out slamming Bush for going on foriegn soil to slam Senator Obama and President Carter (the white house said this is who it was aimed at).
Huffington Post Reports:
Lumping McCain together with President Bush, Obama declared: “If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that’s a debate I’m ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for.” He blamed Bush for policies that enhance the strength of terrorist groups such as Hamas and “the fact that al-Qaida’s leadership is stronger than ever because we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan,” among other failings.
Video: Obama say “After almost 8 years I did not think I could be surprised by anything George Bush said…”
Huffington Posst Continuted Obama continued the debate on Friday at a town-hall meeting in a livestock barn. He said he had planned to focus on rural issues during his swing through South Dakota, but felt compelled to answer the remarks from Bush and McCain.
“I’m a strong believer in civility and I’m a strong believer in a bipartisan foreign policy, but that cause is not served with dishonest, divisive attacks of the sort that we’ve seen out of George Bush and John McCain over the last couple days,” he said.
Obama said McCain had a “naive and irresponsible belief that tough talk from Washington will somehow cause Iran to give up its nuclear program and support for terrorism.”
Speaking of McCain and Bush together, he added: “They aren’t telling you the truth. They are trying to fool you and scare you because they can’t win a foreign policy debate on the merits. But it’s not going to work. Not this time, not this year.”
Obama also challenged them to a debate on foreign policy at “anytime”, saying it was a debate he was “happy to have”.
Obama further noted according to Huffington Post that Meeting with reporters, he argued that tough-minded diplomacy and engagement with rivals have long coexisted, citing the foreign policies of former Presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan.
“That has been the history of U.S. diplomacy until very recently,” Obama said. “I find it puzzling that we view this as in any way controversial. This whole notion of not talking to people, it didn’t hold in the ’60s, it didn’t hold in the ’70s … When Kennedy met with (Soviet leader Nikita) Khrushchev, we were on the brink of nuclear war.”
He also noted that Nixon opened talks with China with the knowledge that Chinese leader Mao Zedong “had exterminated millions of people.”
Finally, he pointed out that McCain had actually done what he was falsely accusing Obama; refering to an interview that McCain did in 2006 in Switzerland where McCain said that “Hamas is the government” so that we have to “deal with them”.
On CNN’s “American Morning” Friday, Rubin — a former assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration and a supporter of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — said McCain’s criticism of Obama’s position was hypocritical.
“When he was in Davos [Switzerland] amongst the European crowd and I interviewed him there two years ago, he was talking as if it was appropriate and natural and reasonable to negotiate with Hamas, the new government of the Palestinian territories,” Rubin said.
“And then two years later, he’s taking a very, very different position … smearing people for suggesting that one ought to talk to Hamas when it was he himself who was prepared to talk to Hamas two years ago.”, according to CNNpolitics.com
Watch this Hardball coverage that includes some video of one of Barack’s two speeches where he says Bush and McCain have a lot to answer for on foreign policy:
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