Obama attacks Bush for linking him to Nazi appeasers; White House denies it
May 15, 2008WASHINGTON - Democratic front-runner Barack Obama accused President George W. Bush of launching a "sad" and "false" political attack on him Thursday by saying those in favour of negotiating with terrorists and radicals are like Nazi appeasers.
The White House denied Bush's words in a speech to Israel's parliament were directed at Obama, who has argued in favour of meeting with leaders of U.S. adversaries like Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
But a firestorm quickly hit the presidential election campaign, drawing angry retorts from Democrats who called the president's comments "bullshit," "unprecedented" and "outrageous."
John McCain, the Republican party's nominee-in-waiting, used the opportunity to attack his likely rival for wanting to talk to radical leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"This does bring up an issue that we will be discussing with the American people and that is: why does Barack Obama want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism?" he asked in Columbus, Ohio.
"It shows naivete and inexperience and lack of judgment to say he wants to sit down across the table from an individual who leads a country that says Israel is a stinking corpse, that is dedicated to the extinction of the state of Israel."
McCain raised hackles last week when he said Obama is the "favoured" presidential candidate of Hama, the militant Palestinian group.
Obama, who has ruled out talking to organizations like Hamas, has stepped up efforts to reach out to American Jews who may doubt his support for Israel.
In his speech, Bush spoke of the Iranian president, who has called for the destruction of Israel.
"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals," Bush told Israel's Knesset.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler all 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."
Obama shot back with a strong statement to counter claims that he's a foreign policy lightweight
