Was Bush's Knesset speech a swipe at Obama?

Barack Obama's aides were quick to respond. His people called it "extraordinary politicization of foreign policy." While U.S. President George W. Bush was speaking in Israel and comparing those who would talk with Iran to those who would have talked to Adolf Hitler, a storm broke out in the American political arena. Did Bush mean Obama? Was he comparing him to Neville Chamberlain? The president's travels in the Holy Land - which didn't make a lot of headlines in a media steeped in election coverage - were suddenly hot news.

Bush taunted those who follow "the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history." There is only one candidate for the White House in 2008 who advocates direct dialogue with the Iranian regime, and that is Obama. And although the White House stated that Bush's remarks were not directed at Obama, pundits - and the campaign headquarters - were quick to find clues indicating that these comments were directed at the senator from Illinois. Obama issued a statement: "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 also has an inherent interest in faking insult, thus garnering attention and emphasizing for voters the differences between him and Bush - and Republican candidate John McCain, widely seen as Bush's ideological heir.

Tying McCain to Bush is the Democratic strategy ahead of the upcoming election. And regarding Israel, the strategy is clear too: Everyone supports Israel, and any Republican attempt to claim otherwise is nothing but lies. Even Obama's rival, Hillary Clinton, said yes when asked if Obama would support Israel. So too says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) ahead of her visit to Israel next week: All of them will support Israel - Obama, Clinton and McCain.

Obama, as we wrote Thursday, is working to calm voters worried that he might not support Israel as strongly as his predecessors. McCain plans to use the Iranian issue to prove that not all forms of support are equal. He hopes to attract Jewish votes in states like Florida, which could tip the scales in his favor, and believes he will succeed - certainly in getting more Jewish votes than Bush did in 2004.

Obama is setting his sights on McCain as Clinton slides out of political consciousness. Even with her impressive win in West Virginia, she had trouble filling the seats on her press bus this week, while Obama garners headline after headline. He's gotten some help from his new friend, John Edwards, a crucial endorsement. And no one knows which way the prized Al Gore endorsement will go yet. But Obama needs something more than Gore's endorsement: He needs superdelegates. He already has more of these than Clinton, but he will clinch the nomination only after he has enough to boost him from the "leading" candidate to the "winning" candidate.

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