Obama and Chamberlain: Birds of a feather?

With Missourinet's Brent Martin covering the Democratic National Convention in Denver ... and yours truly awaiting my getaway to the Twin Cities for the Republican Convention next week ... I am invited by the GOP, on a daily basis, to take part in one-on-one and conference calls on various issues. The guests are fine and the subjects are interesting ... with some of the talk focused on the strengths of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain ... and some of it aimed at what the Republicans see as shortcomings on the part of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Senator Kit Bond has played quite a roll in this effort to get out the GOP message. And, anyone who knows our senior U.S. Senator knows he really has no problem saying what's on his mind. (We're fortunate in Missouri in that our junior U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is just as outspoken) ... but more about her at another time.

A Tuesday conference call with the aforementioned Kit Bond and former State Representative Jack Jackson - the co-chairs of the McCain campaign in Missouri - dealt with national security. Our senior Senator compared Obama - somewhat - to 1930s British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who is known for his policy of appeasement in the run up to World War II.

Says Bond: "I don't know all of the things that Neville Chamberlain did but I can tell you that Neville Chamberlain's efforts to appease Hitler are very much what we're hearing from Barack Obama when he says he wants to meet, unconditionally, with Ahmadinejad ... When he believes the United Nations can handle the problems with Russia. He doesn't realize that there are times when - even though military action is the last resort, and we ought to pursue diplomatic efforts - that there are times we have to use that because there are evil people in this world ... there are evil leaders like Ahmadinejad, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein ... who will not listen to reason, will not be won over by diplomacy." He adds, "We have to have the willingness to stand up and say - this is beyond negotiation and this is where we have to fight."

- Steve Walsh

Comments

[Jordan Yount]

Sen. Bond is obviously senile, and quoting him just proves the point. I participated in numerous conference calls with Bond during the Clinton years, and he never missed an opportunity to attack the president. Often, that seemed to be the only reason for the call. Nice to know some things never change.