President Bush seemingly waded into the ‘08 fray during a speech before the the Israeli parliament yesterday, causing a firestorm of back-and-forth between the three ‘08 contenders. The offending comment - “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.”

While Bush didn’t name names (and the White House says the President was not specifically referring to Obama), of course it has been Barack Obama who has said on the campaign trail that he will meet with friends and foes - including Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Obama campaign quickly responded to Mr. Bush’s statement, saying it was “sad” that the president used his speech commemorating the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence to “launch a false political attack.”

Later when John McCain “embraced” Bush’s statement, an Obama spokesman replied “It is the height of hypocrisy for John McCain to deliver a lofty speech about civility and bipartisanship in the morning and then embrace George Bush’s disgraceful political attack in the afternoon. Instead of delivering meaningful change, John McCain wants to continue George Bush’s irresponsible and failed Iran policy by refusing to engage in tough, direct diplomacy like Presidents from Kennedy to Reagan have done.”

Today, Obama responded with anger and forcefulness, while criticizing Bush’s “failed” policies abroad and hammering McCain for supporting them. “They’re trying to fool you. They’re trying to scare you. And they’re not telling the truth. And the reason is they can’t win a foreign policy debate on the merits, but it’s not gonna work. It’s not gonna work this time and it’s not gonna work this year,” Obama told voters in Watertown, South Dakota. “If George Bush and John McCain want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that’s a debate I’m happy to have, anytime, any place, and that is a debate that I will win, because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for,” he said.

As evidence, Obama cited what he sees as foreign policy failures implemented by the Bush Administration. “Our Iran policy is a complete failure right now and that’s the policy John McCain is running on. He has nothing to offer except the naïve and irresponsible belief that tough talk from Washington will somehow cause Iran to give up its nuclear program in support for terrorism. I’m running for president to change course, not to continue George Bush’s course,” he said to applause.

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Later at a press avail, Obama was asked if he took the White House’s word that President Bush was not referring to him. “For them to suggest that somehow they weren’t aimed – who’s this “some” that they were talking about? Is this some amorphous “some”? Or is this just a straw man that they were setting up? And if so, what was the purpose of the remarks? That’s being disingenuous,” he responded.

Of Obama’s South Dakota remarks, a McCain spokesman noted, “It was remarkable to see Barack Obama’s hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned.”