Steve Benen: Yesterday, the president, with not-so-subtle language, suggested to the Israeli Knesset that Barack Democrats are Chamberlain-like appeasers because Obama is willing to talk to Iran (just as Bush’s own Defense Secretary and Secretary of State have recommended). As it turns out, Obama had taken the day off from the campaign trail, but the entire party had his back, and quickly and aggressively pushed back against Bush — and against John McCain for applauding Bush’s smear.

Silent Patriot: At a town hall meeting in South Dakota today, Barack Obama absolutely laced into President Bush and John McCain, challenging them to a debate on foreign policy that he knows Democrats will win. Forcefully declaring that they have things to "answer for," Obama laid out the case as to why it's George Bush's policies, embraced entirely by John McCain, that have actually strengthened Iran and enabled Hamas to take control of Gaza.

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"I want to be perfectly clear with George and John McCain....If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate I'm willing to have anytime, anywhere because that is a debate that I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for."

This is a debate that we should all be eager to have. There is no question that American foreign policy over the past eight years has done nothing to secure America, and has had the adverse effect of (a) strengthening Iran and (b) allowing other conflicts to fester as they go unaddressed. What's more, this policy is not just George Bush's; it's also John McCain's. The American people are smart enough to recognize this, and they have rejected it.

It kinda makes you wonder why John McCain would seek to tether himself to George Bush's sinking ship, doesn't it?