Bush Invokes the Nazis in Attack on Obama

Despite the fact that Bush has said he would not become entangled in the Presidential race, it seems, on Thursday, that he jumped in with both feet. While traveling in Israel, in a speech to the Knesset, Bush said the following, in an obvious attack on Barack Obama:

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've heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American Senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of 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.

It interesting to note that the person who Bush quoted was William Borah - a Republican.

Obama fired back, releasing the following statement:

It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.

Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power -- including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy -- to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.

It should also be noted, as MSNBC's political analysts Pat Buchanan and Harold Ford, Jr. said, that it's always been considered taboo to attack a Presidential candidate from foreign soil.

Additionally, as Ford noted, just yesterday Secretary of Defense Robert Gates argued that United States needed to engage with Iran:

We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them," Gates said. "If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can't go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us.

Negotiation as a first step should always be considered. Naturally if that fails, other actions may be required. But at least talk to people!

Watch the MSNBC video: