Bush, the general election and Nazi appeasers

Speaking in front of the Knesset yesterday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Israel's creation, President Bush did something few politicians do: He interjected talk of domestic politics in a speech given abroad. In what was a veiled but unmistakable attack on Barack Obama's proposal to meet with foreign leaders from 'rogue states,' Bush compared the desire of some American politicians to meet with "terrorists and radicals" to Nazi appeasers:

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 an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

The remarks predictably created a firestorm in the United States and the net result is very good for Obama. First, it cast him in the role of the main Democratic figure, projecting him ahead to the general election at a time his campaign is trying to portray the general election as over. All Democrats rallied at Obama's defense yesterday, denouncing Bush's partisan speech in a foreign country as well as the ugly nature of the attack. Joe Biden got noticed (think veepstakes or cabinet post...) for offering the most forceful response, calling Bush's speech "bullshit." Even Hillary Clinton ended up defending Obama, probably not what she was expecting to be doing with her day yesterday:

President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is offensive and outrageous, especially in the light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address.

Second, Obama would love nothing more than to be running against George Bush in the fall. The Republican president, whose approval rating is hovering around 30%, is the main reason the GOP is in so much trouble right now, surviving only because of John McCain's uncommon appeal to independents and moderate voters is keeping his numbers afloat. The main Democratic strategy in the coming months will be to tie McCain to the incumbent president -- McSame, a third term for Bush, etc... -- and Bush did the Arizona Senator no favor by contaminating an attack that the GOP was sure to use against Obama, an attack that will now be associated with Bush. This also gives an opportunity to Obama to (1) rehearse his defense of his proposal to talk to foreign leaders in favorable conditions and (2) hit back forcefully against Bush, painting himself to be running in opposition to the current Administration as much as against McCain and articulating a coherent alternative foreign policy at a time people are starting to pay attention to the general election.

To make matters worse for the GOP, Bush's speech came on a day McCain was trying to distance himself from the president, giving a speech ("2013") which was supposed to be his latest attempt to show the ways in which he would be a different kind of Republican and the ways in which he propose a bi-partisan (post-partisan?) approach (expect the debate over who is the true post-partisan to pick-up in the coming months...). Instead, not only was McCain's speech completely overshadowed but McCain was left defending Bush's statement -- one he would have made sooner or later but that he would have rather made first by himself:

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.

The McCain campaign has to be worried about this kind of thing happening over and over again in the coming months. They are hoping for President Bush to make as little news as possible and not try to interfere in the general election campaign, but yesterday's show proved that Bush can do pretty much anything he wants and get instant attention (Marc Ambinder isn't even sure that the Administration warned or coordinated this with the McCain campaign).

And it did not help McCain's cause that an interview he gave to the Washington Post in 2006 was unearthed today in which McCain said the time had come for the United States to accept the "new reality in the Middle East" and start talking to Hamas. That's not exactly what he was saying yesterday and puts him dangerously close to the type of politician Bush described as Nazi appeasers... (As TPM notes, McCain's desire to "deal with" Hamas isn't exactly the same as what the GOP is criticizing Obama for, namely wanting to meet foreign leaders with "no preconditions," but since Obama has never proposed to do that with Hamas, the point is moot.)