Taking the High Road?

"Let's leave aside the transparent political crassness of this--actually, let's not. Clearly, McCain is trying to walk away from his support for a permanent (100 year) military presence. Indeed, the senator's new dovery is undermined by the parameters for 'victory' that he sets . . .

"The ridiculous lack of detail that mark the speech make it hard to take the thing seriously."

McCain was promptly upstaged by the current president, whose blast from Israel is dominating the news cycle. Obama called the attack "sad" and a "politicization of foreign policy."

"President Bush used a speech to the Israeli Parliament on Thursday to liken those who would negotiate with 'terrorists and radicals' to Nazi appeasers -- a remark widely interpreted as a rebuke to Senator Barack Obama, who has advocated greater engagement with countries like Iran and Syria," says the New York Times.

"Mr. Bush did not mention Mr. Obama by name, and White House officials said he was not taking aim at the Illinois senator, although they were aware the speech might be interpreted that way."

Liberal bloggers are denouncing Bush in the most full-throated terms. Taylor Marsh breaks out the adjectives:

"Will this ever end? George W. Bush, the most incompetent, bumbling, stubborn president talking about Democrats as if we are traitors? There isn't a political woman or man alive who could get through the political system who could either offer to 'negotiate with terrorists,' or sell Israel down the river. But bringing up the Hitler analogy is going some, even for Bush. Then he goes one worse. Implies that any notion that Iraq is making matters worse for our country is appeasement, and that any notion of insisting Iraqis take over their own country is tantamount to negotiating with Hitler . . .

"President Bush is not only wrong, but destructive using this type of language. Hey, but what's new."

Steve Benen at Carpetbagger professes sadness:

"It's cheap; it's ugly; and it's beneath of office of the president of the United States. I vaguely recall a time when American political figures felt honor-bound not to attack other U.S. leaders while on foreign soil. Regrettably, we've learned that the words 'honor' and 'Bush' don't belong in the same sentence, unless separated by the phrase 'doesn't have any.' "

Paul Begala: "George W. Bush is unworthy of the presidency. He is a disgrace to himself, our nation, and the high office he holds . . . It is especially appalling to supporters of Israel that Mr. Bush would stand on a hilltop in Jerusalem to invoke the Holocaust in order to make a cheap and deeply dishonest political point."

The New Republic's Christopher Orr says this isn't helping McCain: