Get Obama Carter
Only yesterday President Bush took what appeared to most onlookers as a swipe at presidential candidate Barack Obama for his stated willingness to hold talks with Iran, saying that talking with the Iranians would be akin to Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis. Granted, he didn’t come right out and mention Obama by name, but officials in his administration, speaking to the press on background, confirmed it to reporters.
"Did we know this could be construed as being about Obama? Yes, of course," a White House source told ABC News.
It seems, however, that the blowback from Bush’s remarks has been so intense that he and his administration have backpedaled and are claiming no foreknowledge of how Bush’s comments would be construed. Ed Gillespie, speaking to reporters in Saudi Arabia, today said that the administration’s words were aimed at former President Carter and not Senator Obama.
"We did not anticipate that it would be taken that way, because its kind of hard to take it that way when you look at the actual words."
Cheapshot accomplished.