WATERTOWN, S.D. (AP) -- Barack Obama says President Bush and John McCain "can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits" and are instead making "dishonest, divisive" attacks against him.
Obama's rebuke today comes in response to a speech President Bush made to the Israeli Knesset yesterday, in which Bush referred to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for the destruction of Israel. Bush said "some seem to believe" in negotiating with terrorists, and warned against appeasement.
Bush did not mention Obama by name, but Obama and other Democrats say the comments were clearly directed at them and amounted to fear-mongering.
Speaking to reporters in South Dakota, Obama argued that tough-minded diplomacy and engaging rivals has been a foreign policy approach taken by both Democratic and Republican presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
McCain's campaign calls Obama's comments a "hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn't even mentioned."
