Curious to see that Obama’s response to the BushMcCain “appeasement” charge is now getting as much play as the charge itself. But he’s going about it wrong.

Obama responded Friday to Bush’s speech Thursday to the Israeli Knesset. The president referred to the leader of Iran, who has called for the destruction of the U.S. ally, and then said some seem to believe that we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals — comments Obama and Democrats said were directed at them. McCain subsequently said Obama must explain why he wants to talk with rogue leaders.

If I’m Barack Obama, my response is this:

George Bush and John McCain, whose foreign policy is one and the same, think we shouldn’t talk to other countries. In their world, there’s no diplomacy - only guns.

That’s worked out real well these past few years, don’t you think?

Don’t whine about how the BushMcCain attacks were unfair. Simply point out that theirs is the mindset that got us stuck in Iraq, a war that - if McCain’s Pony Plan comes through - will have lasted a full decade, cost upwards of $3 trillion, Lord knows how many American deaths, and untold numbers of Iraqi dead.

Their approach, in other words, has failed, is failing, and it’s time, now, to start using our brains. And there’s a helluva constituency for that - as McCain, I suspect, will learn come fall.

Update: See, and Obama obviously already knows how to play this game:

Well I want to be perfectly clear with George Bush and John McCain – if they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that’s a debate I’m ready to win, because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for. …

<snip>

“…in the Bush-McCain worldview, everyone who disagrees with their failed Iran policy is an appeaser. And back during his “No Surrender” tour, John McCain said anyone who wants to end the war in Iraq responsibly wants to surrender; he even said later on that he would be OK keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years, but yesterday he said our troops could be home by 2013. He offered the promise that America will win a victory, with no understanding that Iraq is fighting a civil war. Just like George Bush, his plan isn’t about winning, it’s about staying, and that’s why there will be a clear choice in November: fighting a war without end, or ending this war. Because we don’t need John McCain’s prediction about when the war will end – we need a plan to end it.

That’s going to leave a mark. Already has, in fact - now The Leader is trying to say no no - he was talking about Jimmy Carter.