You've Got Some Nerve

On Thursday, in a speech before the Israeli Knesset, President Bush said:

"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 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."

Following the speech, Barack Obama responded immediately, calling the passage a "false political attack" and labeling it "fear mongering." Even though Obama's name was never mentioned in the speech.

Obama has received plaudits from the press for his speedy and aggressive response. They draw a contrast between his reaction and John Kerry's lack of response to the TV ads placed by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth four years ago.

But, couldn't it be argued that all Obama has done is signal to the world that what Bush said was true, and that the comments could, in fact, have been about him? The quickly released statement on Thursday and Obama's podium-pounding speech on Friday show that whatever Bush's intentions, his remarks obviously struck a raw nerve for the Senator.

Also interesting, Obama's response has been much more about how and where Bush made his remarks as opposed to what he actually said. It's all much less about Bush being wrong, and much more about Bush just being mean and inappropriate. Which, ironically, is pretty much a philosophical plank in the platform of the "false comfort of appeasement" that started this whole dust-up in the first place.

One other thing. Hillary Clinton jumped up and down and said all the same things that Obama did. And no one cared. In her case, you've got to think she actually wanted the President to be talking about her, so that at least one person still would be.