President Bush"s "Appeasement" Remarks

There are many who believe that Iran's president seized U.S. hostages during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis while Jimmy Carter was president. That's Iran's president on the right. Some say the kidnapper-gunman on the left is him, too.



President Bush made some remarks about politicians who would try to placate or appease Middle Eastern despots. The prez did not mention Barack Obama by name and could just as easily have been referring to Jimmy Carter. However, there's no denying the Barackians are highly defensive on the foreign policy issues of the day

The Obama campaign now has its panties in a bunch over the President’s remarks. It’s strange and misguided that Obama has his communications director, Robert Gibbs, out in front as point man to refute the president’s words and launch a counter-argument. This is the kind of thing Obama should articulate himself. Obviously, a growing fear in the Obama campaign is that their candidate cannot speak “off-the-cuff” and without a script. Why would they put their communications director out there?

The public needs to know who Barack Obama is. The strategy of expressing third-hand views allows Obama to disavow or add to his communication director’s statement ex-post-facto. Obama has consistently engaged in this kind of manipulation. Voters need to know that Obama can stake out his own positions and speak from the heart. Having others stake out or attack political positions is the cheapest of political tactics from a Senator who presents himself as a “change agent.”

Like many other Americans who support U.S. efforts in the Middle East, Jewish voters are deeply suspicious of Senator Obama’s remarks on negotiations with Hamas and Hizbollah, terrorist organizations funded and supported by Iran and Syria.