A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Speaking at ceremonies to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel, President Bush made the following statement regarding the fight against terrorism:

. . . "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."

This relatively banal statement--banal because it has been repeated in some form or another by Western leaders ever since it became indubitably clear that Neville Chamberlain did not quite have things right at Munich--has caused people to lose their ever-loving minds. Barack Obama is generally even-keeled, but . . . well . . . read the following overreaction:

"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said in the statement his aides distributed. "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

You know, it takes a lot to make the White House political office seem competent these days, but the Obama campaign did it:

The White House said Bush's comment wasn't a reference to Obama.

"It is not," press secretary Dana Perino told reporters in Israel. "I would think that all of you who cover these issues and have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that the president, President Bush, thinks that we should not talk to. I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you. That is not always true. And it is not true in this case."

Indeed, there is nothing whatsoever in the statement that even remotely refers to Obama, who should have just let the statement go. But evidently, it is more important to fire up the masses with furious protestations that Team Obama Must Not Be Offended. The masses respond dutifully. Joe Biden swears. Nancy Pelosi stammers. I expect that this evening, Keith Olbermann will burst a blood vessel.

I'm gobsmacked at the idea that an issue should have even been made of this speech. The only thing this furious nonsense has done is to make clear to the McCain people that Team Obama can be easily rattled and made to--dare I write it?--lose its bearings.

Oh, and if you are excessively touchy about a particular comment--even when the comment does not refer to you in any way--you make others think that there must be some reason for the comment to apply. For all of its protestations, Team Obama has likely only served to make itself more vulnerable.