On the eve of Israel's 60th anniversary, it's no small wonder that Terrorist Party nominee Barack Obama (TP – Explodistan) is shooting his mouth off pledging to negotiate with hostile leaders like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he's president. Which is why President Bush ambled into the Knesset today to answer the one question on everyone's mind: where have we heard this foolish diversion before?

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to the Israeli Knesset. "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, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Hm. While I agree President Barack Hitler Obama couldn't be trusted to defend Poland, there are some geeks who would argue that by invoking Hitler means the Republicans are effectively forfeiting this otherwise bulletproof argument. So, surely John McCain will straight-talk things back down to earth.

"Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain," Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. "I believe that it's not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn't sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home."

Not quite the cool down I was looking for, I guess, but fair point all around. They didn't call Reagan Ol' Never Negotiate with Iran for nothing.