Obama rips Bush, McCain in foreign policy rebuttal

WATERTOWN, S.D. – Sen. Barack Obama pushed back Friday against President Bush’s implicit criticism of his approach to foreign policy, condemning his administration for not capturing Osama bin Laden and blaming its Iraq war policy for strengthening and emboldening Iran.

An animated Obama, cheered on by a crowd gathered on the floor of a livestock arena, said he would be delighted if the presidential race turned into a conversation about which party is better suited to guide foreign policy.

“If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I’m happy to have anytime, anyplace, and that is a debate I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for,” the Democratic front-runner said.

After weeks of discussion about how to address rising gasoline prices and the nation’s souring economy, the campaign resumed its focus on the Iraq war and the fragile state of the Middle East.

Obama used a speech that was otherwise focused on rural issues to respond to Bush’s comments to the Israeli Knesset on Thursday. The president said that “some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.” He went on to compare a willingness to meet with “terrorists and radicals” to the pre-World War II “appeasement” of Nazi Germany.

Presidential counselor Ed Gillespie said Friday that Bush’s remarks on appeasement were not a reference to Obama, and he suggested that White House aides were surprised by Democrats’ reaction.

Bush’s remarks were “consistent with what he has said in the past relative to dealing with groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and al-Qaida, relative to standing by Israel, relative to concerns about Iran developing the prospect of a nuclear weapon,” Gillespie said.

At a news conference later Friday, Obama called it “disingenuous” to assert that he was not the clear target of the president’s comments. Obama then used the exchange to link Bush’s foreign policy record to McCain’s stance toward the Middle East, and to outline the ways his approach to the world’s most vexing problems would differ from those of the current administration.

With former Sen. Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., looking on and a John Deere tractor parked nearby, Obama launched into a blunt critique of Bush’s foreign policy record. His list of grievances included a war fought on the premise of weapons of mass destruction that were never found, the failure to capture bin Laden and turning Iran into the “greatest beneficiary” of the Iraq war.

He said McCain will “need to answer” for a strengthened al-Qaida leadership, Hamas’ control of Gaza, and Iran’s ability to fund Hezbollah and pose “the greatest threat to America and Israel and the Middle East in a generation.”

“That’s the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country,” Obama said. “Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on.”