David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

Sen. Barack Obama fires back after President Bush likened talking with Hamas to negotiating with Hitler.

Hey bloggers,

Yesterday we told you about comments President Bush made in a speech to Israel’s parliament. The president compared calls to talk with unnamed terrorist groups a ‘foolish delusion.’ (read more here)

Well today, Obama fired back.

Sen. Barack Obama slammed President Bush for launching “exactly the kind of appalling attack that’s divided our country and that alienates us from the world.”

Speaking at a campaign stop in Watertown, South Dakota, Obama also lambasted Sen. John McCain for “embracing” the president’s “attacks on Democrats,” and “suggesting that I wasn’t fit to protect this nation that I love.”

“So much for civility,” Obama said, noting that McCain had talked about the need for civility in politics earlier Thursday.

He went on:
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Peter Bergen
CNN National Security Analyst

In a speech in Ohio on Thursday John McCain laid out his vision for his putative presidency. Perhaps the most striking part was the claim that by the end of his four year-term in 2013 the global war on terrorism would be effectively over—Osama bin Laden and his key lieutenants would be behind bars or dead; al Qaeda would no longer have a safe haven on the Afghan-Pakistan border; the Taliban would be largely out of business; al Qaeda in Iraq defeated; the Iraq War “won,” and no major terrorist attack would have taken place in the United States.

It’s undeniably an attractive vision of the future, but how plausible are those claims? Given the fact that bin Laden remains at large today more than six years after 9/11 it is wishful thinking that he will be caught in the next five years. There hasn’t been a solid lead on bin Laden’s whereabouts since the battle of Tora Bora in December of 2001 when radio intercepts definitively placed him in the mountain redoubt in eastern Afghanistan.

But since then the al Qaeda leader hasn’t talked on a cell or satellite phone so there is no signals intelligence on his whereabouts, and it is quite unlikely anyone in his immediate circle will drop a dime on him for a large cash reward as there have been no takers for the millions of dollars of bounty on his head that the United States has advertised since 1999.

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Dana Bash
CNN Correspondent

We were riding the bus from John McCain’s speech on his vision for 2013, after his 4 years as president.. a somewhat utopian speech.
 
We had just finished going ’round and ’round with him over whether his vision — or promise — of an end of the Iraq war by then, constituted a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. He repeatedly denied that and called it a false interpretation.

We asked him about President Bush’s comments before the Knesset, suggesting Democrats favor “appeasement” of terrorists in the way some Western leaders appeased

Hitler in the run-up to World War II. Noting that Barack Obama took that to be a shot at him, we asked Senator McCain if he agreed.

Mccain responded that he takes Bush at his word, but then criticized Obama repeatedly for saying he would talk with the president of Iran.

He was clearly eager to talk about this, saying,

“It is a serious error on the part of Sen. Obama that shows naivete and

inexperience and lack of judgment to say that he wants to sit down across the

table from an individual who leads a country who says that Israel is a stinking

corpse.”

McCain also recently charged that Obama is the favored candidate of  Hamas, which the U.S. has listed as a terrorist group. Obama called that McCain remark a “smear,” and today called Bush’s comment, “a false political attack.”

I later asked Senator McCain how much of an issue this will be and he said that of course national security – and their differences on it – will be big.

 A taste of the general election campaign to come.

David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

John McCain highlighted his plans as president Thursday and predicted the war in Iraq will be over by 2013.'

Bloggers,

Wanted to share another speech today that’s making headlines.

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, made a speech in which he envisions the state of affairs at the end of his first term if he is elected president.

“What I want to do today is take a little time to describe what I would hope to have achieved at the end of my first term as president. I cannot guarantee I will have achieved these things,”

In this speech he lays out benchmarks during his first term in office on which he could be judged.

“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom…”

“The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension…”

“[The] threat from a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan will be greatly reduced but not eliminated” … U.S. and NATO forces will remain in the country “to help finish the job, and continue operations against the remnants of al Qaeda.”

McCain envisions that Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants, would be captured or killed.

He also believes that in 2013, there still will not have been a “major terrorist attack in the United States since September 11, 2001.”

Here are a list of other milestones McCain hopes to see at the end of what would be his first term:
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Barclay Palmer
360° Senior Producer

Barack Obama had already seemed to take a page from his forebear on the other end of the political spectrum — yes, Ronald Reagan — by running on a platform of optimism, which he has branded as “change.”

And last night, the Illinois Democrat evoked the widely admired stagecraft of the Gipper, who could turn a speech into a celebratory rally timed perfectly for evening newscasts, complete with hundreds of balloons falling from above, and cheering, nearly ecstatic crowds.

Fast forward to Obama last night: he comes bounding in before a roaring crowd. With his slow and pausing manner of speech, which somehow builds rather than depletes the drama, he promises “something special,” then introduces John Edwards, who comes bounding in to even greater cheers. What is this, a prize fight?

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David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

During a speech to the Knesset, Pres. Bush compares calls to talk with unnamed terrorist groups a 'foolish delusion.'

Hey Bloggers,

Wanted to get your thoughts on something that President Bush said today when adressing Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Israel’s 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.

Some are saying the President launched a sharp but veiled attack on Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats, suggesting they favor “appeasement” of terrorists in the same way some Western leaders appeased Hitler in the run-up to World War II.

The president did not say Obama’s name directly (or any other Democrat for that matter) but White House aides privately acknowledged the remarks were aimed at the presidential
candidate and others in his party. Former President Jimmy Carter has called for
talks with Hamas.

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with 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 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.”

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Editor’s note: Bonnie Erbe is the host of PBS’s weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe, and syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. Her blog ‘Racism in the Presidential Race’ appeared on UsNews.com.

Bonnie Erbe
Host, PBS’ “To the Contrary”

Terry McAuliffe, Senator Clinton’s campaign manager was all over the cable news channels last night claiming Sen. Clinton’s 2-1 win in West Virginia is proof she and only she can win the White House for the Democratic party in November—that due to her support from white, working class voters.

But an even more telling point about white, working class voters and how some of them will vote when (and it looks like when, not if) Sen. Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee was made in article in yesterday’s Washington Post. The monster lurking behind the curtain in the Democratic presidential race is racism. Up to now, Sen. Obama’s supporters in the extreme left wing of the Democratic party, have tried to ignore its existence. This article is proof, it not only exists, it is unfortunately alive and well, particularly in factory towns:

Read full blog…

Editor’s note: Will age be an issue in November? If John McCain wins, he would be the oldest person in the nation’s history elected to a first term in the White House. We explore all the angles, tonight at 10 ET

Gary Tuchman
360° Correspondent

Is it fair for John McCain’s age to be an issue in this presidential race? Is John McCain too old to be president? These are touchy issues and thorny questions, but we decided to tackle it in a story because it is indeed being prominently discussed.

If McCain wins the general election, he will be the oldest man ever elected to a first term. We spent a day with Senator McCain in Washington State. He paid an environmental visit to a wildlife habitat and led a panel discussion on climate change and global warning.

As part of his visit, he donned his sneakers and a baseball cap and took a short hike in the woods. He certainly dressed like someone a lot younger than 72. But I think even he would admit that for the most part he does looks his age. A poll this week by the Washington Post and ABC News indicates that almost four out of ten Americans say they would be uncomfortable with a 72 year old being president.

So is McCain sensitive about this?
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David M. Reisner
360° Digital Producer

Hey Bloggers,

Breaking News: John Edwards is to endorse Sen. Barack Obama as the Democratic candidate for President…The Obama campaign tells us the announcement will occur tonight in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

We’ll have the story at 10p ET. Please join us.

David Gergen
360° Contributor

Her landslide victory gives Hillary Clinton a large measure of vindication for staying in the race. Clearly, many Democrats want to continue the race until the primaries and caucuses conclude, and she is giving voice to their legitimate concerns about the economy. The party will be much better positioned in the fall if it fully hears the anxieties of voters about their lives and can respond not only with a sense of hope but with a set of ideas and policies that will put America’s house in order. The continued Clinton campaign is giving the public a chance to be more fully heard.

Yet it is also clear that unless the wheels come totally off the Obama campaign — and there is no sign of that, just the opposite — he will soon have the nomination in his grasp. That raises two questions for Mrs. Clinton:

Will she go gracefully?
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