Bush's jump into campaign makes Obama smile

President George W. Bush visited Israel last week and stirred up a storm with a speech berating the "some" who want to negotiate with America's enemies, invoking images of Nazi tanks and Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler.

Who are these "some" people Bush is talking about?

His press secretary Dana Perino adamantly denied this remark was aimed at Sen. Barack Obama, who has said he would talk with America's enemies like Iran.

If the attack wasn't against Obama, then who?

Maybe it's Sen. John McCain, who two years ago suggested that America negotiate with Hamas after the group won Palestinian elections that the U.S. pushed for. McCain seems to have changed his mind about Hamas now, like he has on every other issue of importance to him running for president.

Maybe Bush was referring to the 64 percent of Israelis who currently back talking to Hamas. Wow, Bush has some guts to play the Hitler card on the floor of the Israeli Knesset against the majority of the Israeli people.

Maybe Bush was aiming his fire at former President Jimmy Carter, who recently met with Hamas to try to reach a negotiated settlement between them and Israel. Of course, it was Carter who proved negotiations can work by brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, the most significant step toward peace it the Middle East to date.

Perhaps Bush was talking about his own Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who said America should talk to Iran.

Or maybe Bush was going back in time to criticize Republican presidents Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower for daring to talk to the evil Soviet Union, thus averting nuclear war.

Or there's the obvious answer that Bush's press secretary is just lying. Of course this was an attack on Obama, an attempt to knock down the Democratic upstart and help Sen. McCain win what would amount to Bush's third term.

Making attacks on domestic political opponents while on foreign soil is bad enough. Trying to deny such obvious attacks shows the depths Bush will go to in his attempts to lock America into his belligerent, destructive course.

But the saddest thing here is that Bush, McCain and many of their allies seem blissfully ignorant of the true lessons of history and Chamberlain's bogus journey to Munich in 1938. The problem wasn't that he talked to the Nazis, but that he gave Hitler everything he wanted, and sent the message that Great Britain would not interfere with his conquest of Europe. Capitulation equals appeasement, talking doesn't.

Bush has shown he is a skilled campaigner, and adopting this kind of John Wayne/tough guy, never-negotiate foreign policy works well on the campaign trail with red-meat conservatives.

But he's been a dismal failure as president precisely because he doesn't negotiate, be it the disaster in Iraq or the mess he's made of the American economy. You can't live your life picking fights with anyone who disagrees with you without suffering the consequences of that belligerency.

Let's just be thankful Bush wasn't president during the Cold War when his cowboy diplomacy could have killed us all.

Americans have grown weary of their petulant man-boy president and his temper tantrums. His attempts to help Sen. McCain just serves to remind voters that the two of them are attached at the hip.

Maybe Obama needs to adopt one of Bush's most infamous lines: Bring 'em on. The more Bush attacks Obama, the better it is for Obama. If this election becomes a battle between Obama and Bush's shadow, the shadow loses, big time.

President Bush has destroyed much during his time in office. Perhaps the next item on his list is the political fortunes of his favored successor and the Republican Party.

• Kirk Caraway writes for Swift Communications, Inc. He can be reached through his blog at http://kirkcaraway.com.