WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush stirred up the U.S. presidential campaign Thursday by suggesting that Democratic front-runner Barack Obama’s pledge to talk to Iran’s leader amounted to “the false comfort of appeasement.”

“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,” Bush said in a speech to the Israeli parliament marking Israel’s 60th anniversary.

Without mentioning Obama by name, he compared “this foolish delusion” to the appeasement of the Nazis ahead of World War Two. 

“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,” Bush said.

The remark drew swift response from Obama, who argues the United States blunders by refusing to talk to the leaders of hostile nations like Iran, Syria and Cuba.

“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 said.

“The president’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel,” he said.

Republican candidate John McCain criticized Obama’s pledge to speak directly to U.S. foes, saying “it shows naivete and inexperience and lack of judgment” to consider sitting down with a country like Iran that wants to destroy Israel. “My question is, what does he want to talk about?” McCain said.

Not everyone in Bush’s administration is opposed to talking to Iran. Defense Secretary Robert Gates offered his own ideas just a day before the president’s Knesset speech, telling a diplomatic forum: “We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them.”

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COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he would take a page from the British government if elected and hold question-and-answer sessions with lawmakers.

“I will ask Congress to grant me the privilege of coming before both houses to take questions, and address criticism, much the same as the prime minister of Great Britain appears regularly before the House of Commons,” McCain told an audience Thursday.

Although U.S. presidents deliver annual “State of the Union” speeches to Congress at the start of each year, those formal addresses do not include a question-and-answer session.

McCain says exchanges like the sometimes raucous sessions in the British House of Commons are a way of holding leaders’ feet to the fire.

“When we make errors, I will confess them readily, and explain what we intend to do to correct them,” McCain said. He also reiterated a pledge to hold weekly news conferences, a change from President George W. Bush’s practice of holding them roughly once a month.

Is it a good idea to give lawmakers a chance to pepper the U.S. president with questions on a regular basis?

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Photo credit: Reuters/Richard Clement (McCain speaks in Oregon)

ROCHESTER, Mich. - John McCain answered a question about his legendary temper on Wednesday with a good-natured growl.
 
“How dare you ask that question!” McCain said to laughter from the audience at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.
 
McCain proceeded to use the question as a way to focus on his own concerns, ranging from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s past influence in the U.S. Congress to what he considers out-of-control government spending.
 
“I will confess to you my friend that I do get angry. I get angry when I saw a guy named Abramoff that ripped off Native Americans for millions and millions and millions of dollars,” McCain said.
 
“I get angry when I see $233 million of your tax dollars going to … a bridge to an island with 50 people on it,” referring to an Alaskan lawmaker’s bid to get money for a bridge McCain opposed.
 
“I get angry when I see corruption to the point when we have former members of Congress in federal prison.”
 
“And you know something? The American people are angry too … They’re mad and they’ve lost their temper,” the Arizona senator added.
 
McCain’s remark came in response to a question by a man who  said he worried about reports of McCain’s temper.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Mark Leffingwell (McCain speaks at an event in Denver, Colo., May 2, 2008)

WINSTON-SALEM -  Republican John McCain had a “where-am-I?” moment Tuesday during a busy day on the campaign trail.

“I appreciate the hospitality of the students and faculty of West Virginia,” McCain told the audience at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
 
The audience laughed and McCain quickly corrected himself before launching in to a speech on judicial appointments.

With hectic campaign schedules that take them from town to town and state to state, the candidates sometimes stumble over where they are.

Campaigning in Wyoming in March, Barack Obama made a similar slip. Shaking hands and signing baseball caps at a diner, the Illinois senator said, “It’s really nice in Wisconsin,” and then added, “And Wyoming.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Chris Keane (McCain speaks in North Carolina on Monday)

 DURHAM, N.C. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama took aim on Monday at his rival Hillary Clinton’s argument that he is less electable than her given his recent series of troubles and because he has not been fully “vetted.”

Amid a flap over comments from his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and other controversies, Obama has seen his poll numbers slide lately against both Clinton and the Republican candidate for November’s election, John McCain.

Obama publicly denounced Wright last week after the pastor moved back into the spotlight and repeated his inflammatory charges that the Sept. 11 attacks were in part retribution for U.S. policy and that the government spread AIDS to harm blacks.

Obama has also faced questions about his association with 1960s radical William Ayres and about why he doesn’t wear a U.S. flagpin.

The Illinois senator said those issues had hurt his campaign but did not “knock us off stride.” The fact that the impact from those problems was not greater was a sign that his candidacy was strong, he said.

“Despite all that, if you look at it, we’re still fundamentally tied with John McCain,” Obama said, responding to a question from an undecided voter who asked him about the electability question.

Clinton has pushed the argument that the party elders and officials known as the “superdelegates” should rally around her as the nominee because, as a former first lady, she has been “vetted” and is better able to fend off attacks from Republicans in a general election.

Obama’s counterargument is that the Wright controversy and other issues have that have come up amount to a “vetting” for him. He also challenged Clinton’s contention that Republicans would not try to dredge up old lines of attack against her.

“Sen. Clinton, despite what she says about being vetted, she hasn’t gone through what I’ve been going through over the last couple of months because she’s not the front-runner,” Obama said.

After Obama spoke, the McCain camp weighed in on the electability question, saying that Obama’s opposition to a summer gas tax holiday and his support for an increase in the capital gains tax would leave him vulnerable in the general election if he becomes the nominee.

“Those are Obama’s pledged positions, and they aren’t popular in North Carolina, Indiana or most anywhere else in America,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. 

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-Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama orders food and coffee in Durham, North Carolina on May 5)
   

 INDIANAPOLIS - Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Barack Obama remains the best bet to become the Democratic presidential nominee and would be a formidable opponent for Republican John McCain.
   

Speaking to the French Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Gingrich said McCain had benefited from Obama’s recent difficulties, including controversial comments by the Illinois senator’s longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. 

“But Obama remains a formidable opponent. He is also the most probable Democrat nominee, even if he is not as untouchable as he was before,” said Gingrich, who led his party’s takeover of the House of Representatives in what was known as the Republican Revolution of 1994.

Gingrich was eventually forced out of that role and has gone on to become an author. Though he remains a conservative, Gingrich relishes sometimes taking positions that are seen as contrarian to members of his party.

But he likely was toeing a party line to come when he added: “Obama is not just any left-wing politician. … He is a far left-wing politician, but with a beautiful smile.”
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday he’s likely to make another major speech at the Republican National Convention later this year, as he did in 2004, and that he’s going to join his buddy John McCain on the campaign trail later this year.

The governor spoke of his plans during a lunch session for participants at the Milken Institute Global Conference on the economy.

Schwarzenegger announced on Jan. 31 that he is supporting McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The governor noted that his wife, Maria Shriver,  is a lifelong Democrat who supports Barack Obama. 

Schwarzenegger told the conference that he likes the environmental stands of each of the three presidential candidates: McCain, Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton.  But said he sided with McCain because he knows him best and has a long working relationship with the Arizona senator.

On Tuesday night, the Milken audience was asked, by a show of applause, which of the three candidates they supported. It was a close call between McCain and Obama who the audience liked the most. Only a handful put their hands together for Clinton, who won the California primary over Obama handily earlier this year.

Because he was born outside the United States, the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger is not eligible to run for president. If he were, perhaps he would not have uttered the line on Wednesday that “Nobody is dying to go to Iowa,” the state that holds the first contest in the presidential nominating process and one where candidates are expected to spend alot of time wooing voters. Schwarzenegger said that when he was extoling the virtues of California.

Reporting by Bernie Woodall

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Photo credit: Reuters/Phil McCarten (Schwarzenegger participates in a panel discussion at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif.)

WASHINGTON - U.S. Capitol Police arrested dozens of protesters, many in wheelchairs, at the Senate office of  presidential candidate John McCain on Tuesday while to Arizona Republican was in Florida campaigning about health care as well as raising money.

The activists demanded to talk to McCain about his lack of support for legislation that would help poor handicapped people stay in their homes and out of nursing facilities.

McCain is the only presidential aspirant who has not endorsed the bill, said Bob Kafka, a spokesman for ADAPT, an activist group that staged the protest. Democratic contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support the bill, he said.

About 500 members of the group are in Washington this week celebrating their 25th anniversary of community activism, Kafka said. About 40 protesters were in McCain’s office with another 50 outside the hallway shouting to see McCain. Hundreds of others staged another demonstration outside the Republican National Committee near the Capitol, he said.

Kafka said Medicaid rules are forcing people who need care into nursing institutions. “The main thing that drives our organization is the passion to live in our communities,” he said.

McCain’s office had no immediate comment on the protest. 

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria (protesters follow McCain in Florida).

INDIANAPOLIS - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama refuted controversial comments by his Chicago pastor again on Friday and sought to play up his own origins in an effort to combat perceptions that he is an “elitist”.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is semi-retired from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago which Obama joined 20 years ago, has called the Sept. 11 attacks retribution for U.S. policies and condemned America’s failings on race.

Wright said in an interview this week that Obama’s criticism of those comments was “what he has to say as a politician.”

That led Obama to repeat his criticism on Friday.

“I have commented extensively … on my profound disagreements with some of Rev. Wright’s comments and, you know, I understand that he might not agree with me on my assessment of his comments. That’s to be expected,” the Illinois senator told reporters during a day of campaigning in Indiana which holds its primary May 6.

“He is obviously free to express his opinions on these issues. You know, I’ve expressed mine very clearly. I think that what he said in several instances were objectionable and I understand why the American people took offense. And, as I indicated before, I took offense.”

The controversy over his pastor and, later, remarks that small-town Pennsylvanians were “bitter” about their economic situation, have taken a toll on the Illinois senator’s image.

Obama, who was raised by a single mother and her parents, told reporters he came from more humble origins than rivals Hillary Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, and John McCain, the Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Asked about his image by a local reporter in Indiana, Obama offered the example of his wardrobe as proof with a reference to his wife, Michelle:

“I haven’t changed my approach to dressing too much. Michelle has asked me to clean up because when she first met me I had one suit. Michelle always finds this funny because I basically buy five of the same suit and then I patch them up and wear them repeatedly. I have four pairs of shoes. Recently, I’ve taken to getting a haircut more frequently than I used to because my mother-in-law makes fun of me. So, you know, I don’t think people are too worried about what I’m wearing.”

On his bowling abilities, he said: “I know there was concern about my bowling score, and, you know, I have committed to practicing bowling so that I’m better.” 
     
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- Photo credit: Reuters/Frank Polich (Obama campaigns in Indiana.)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain was not content to just eat the prized barbecue at Little Rock’s Whole Hog Cafe — he wanted to know how it is cooked.

The Arizona senator disappeared into the kitchen of the eatery soon after riding his “Straight Talk Express” bus to the restaurant on Friday with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and their wives, Cindy McCain and Janet Huckabee.

In the back of the place, the cooks were smoking half chickens and slabs of pork ribs in large barbecue smokers, as a succulent smoky smell wafted throughout.

“All right, Cindy, we’re going to have to get one,” McCain said of the smokers.

“Load it on the bus,” Cindy replied.

McCain considers himself quite the barbecue artist, grilling ribs at his Sedona, Ariz., ranch, and was interested in the mix of spices used to rub into the meat before it is cooked.

“Is that a trade secret, your dry rub?” McCain asked the owners. One of the owners cautioned him against using too much salt. “I’m going to have to change my ways,” McCain said.

The McCain and Huckabees decided to take away some ribs, and then came the matter of who would pay. Janet Huckabee insisted the food was already paid for and Gov. Huckabee — mentioned as a possible vice presidential running-mate – told McCain his money was no good in Arkansas.

But McCain put down two $20 bills and a staffer said McCain ultimately paid.

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