“President Bush’s speech to the Israeli Knesset, in which he charged that people who advocate negotiating with ‘terrorists and radicals’ are the equivalent of craven Western leaders who sought to appease Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s, has created a political firestorm. Critics immediately accused Bush of smearing Barack Obama, who had previously indicated that he was willing to open a dialogue with such countries as Iran and Syria. More broadly, liberals asserted that Bush was smearing anyone who supported talking to repressive regimes as weak-kneed appeasers. Those criticisms are justified. Bush’s comments were a cheap shot, and as much as the White House and Republican leaders assert that they were not directed at Obama, it is doubtful if even Laura Bush believes that denial. The invocation of the shopworn ‘appeasement’ slur, however, is not the most-troubling aspect of Bush’s argument. There are three other, even-more-serious problems with his reasoning.” (05/19/08)